Chuck vs The Prequel
by stasts
Summary: A story that takes place during approximately the week before the pilot episode in 2007 that attempts to provide explanations for unanswered questions. Characters appear as they did in or right before the pilot episode.
1. Sept 16 2007, Sunday

Sunday, 16th

------------

"STAY IN THE VAN!", came the stern order from the front seat.

Before he could say anything in his defence, his handler closed the sliding divider thereby isolating him in the back of the van.

These were four words he had never heard until getting involved with them. Nevertheless, as much as it went against his nature, maybe this time it was for the best. After all, he didn't really know what would be happening on this mission.

Hopefully something would be happening soon. His watch and his phone had been taken away from him, and unlike the usual mission van, this one had a completely empty cargo area. He guessed they must not have wanted him to play with anything while he waited. It began to drive him crazy that there weren't even any windows he could peek out of.

The sliding divider abruptly slid open. The Fulcrum agent's face glared derisively at him.

"Okay Bryce, we're going on a little field trip", he jeered before once again sliding the door closed.

The travelling for this 'field trip' felt like it took an eternity. Without his watch or phone, Bryce struggled not knowing where he was or even how long they might be driving.

When the van finally stopped, Tommy reopened the divider and motioned for him to come look through the front window.

"Take a look Bryce. You're making an unannounced pick up in that building later tonight."

Bryce tried to focus his eyes on the building the best he could from where he sat. It wasn't one he recognized, and by all appearances didn't stand out as anything that held any significance.

"Fulcrum wants something in there, and you'll be stealing it for us."

Bryce's attention automatically shifted to the building's perimeter and the surrounding area for possible entry and escape routes.

"You'll need this to download the data from the computer you'll be 'visiting'."

Bryce looked at the strange multicolor wire attachment he had been given.

"When am I 'visiting' this computer?" he replied.

"Later tonight, when it will be quiet. Until then you'll be enjoying the rest of the day with us - tell your girlfriend you won't be home until later."

Tommy nodded to the driver and the van began moving. Before sliding the divider closed he issued one last warning, "This is important Bryce, don't screw it up."

---------------

Her partner had just screwed things up again. If he had just listened to her, she wouldn't be sprinting like this. Her strength had always been her endurance, not her speed. It was her strength that now kept her within sight of her target - a target she was currently pursuing in Los Angeles.  
Charlene tried to catch her breath. It had been a long time since she had played soccer or had done this much running.

"Stop!" she managed to yell as she drew her gun.

The wanted man stopped in his tracks, seemingly needing the opportunity to catch his breath as well. He signalled his surrender.

"Finally," she muttered. After more than three months of his narrow escapes, he finally decided to stop running from her.

"At least someone here has some sense," she would have declared to her partner. Her partner however was nowhere to be found.

Agent Tully leisurely jogged up next to her and raised his gun as well. "I love it when a plan comes together!" he said awkwardly grinning.

It was too hard for her to hear. A week of his mistakes and he apparently considered himself the next Hannibal Smith? Charlene wouldn't give him the satisfaction of hearing any such compliment from her.

She briefly considered shooting him instead.

"Call it in, and make sure they bring the hazmat equipment." she ordered.

Within minutes the disguised CIA transport pulled up. A tall agent dressed in a parcel delivery uniform collected the man she had captured. The stolen case labelled "-42" was carefully placed into the secure storage unit.

"All clear!" he said, indicating that there had been no detectable leaks. He closed the doors and drove off.

She put her gun away and exhaled loudly.

Agent Tully spoke up. "Hey, uh, the next time you're in the States or I mean L.A., give me a call okay? I can help you on another mission - it'll be fun!".

"I'll keep it in mind," Charlene said with a fake smile, "Goodbye Louis."

She took pride in her craft, and this was another job well done. In some ways the sense of accomplishment was bigger on this mission. It had been more difficult, and had a lot more riding on its success.

Charlene allowed herself to continue enjoying her hard earned victory.

'Work hard, play hard' was the kind of motto she believed in. She had held up the first half of that deal, now she felt justified in rewarding herself for her efforts. She would make the most of the days before she received the inevitable next assignment.

Charlene looked up at the early evening sky. The Los Angeles climate seemed hotter and much brighter than the places her missions took place in. Compared to the locals, her pale complexion had been garnering far more looks than she had been comfortable with. She swept her reddish-brown hair out of her face. Perhaps it was her hairstyle, or during the mission - the lack thereof, that had played a part in that attention. Doing something about that would be her new mission #1.

She was feeling better already.

---------------

CIA Director Graham was not feeling well.

This evening he stood in front of a strategically important project; one that had just malfunctioned. The Intersect was just starting to produce results, but it was far too early and certainly far too costly at its current stage to be able to declare it an official success.

Looking down at the display, he saw the cartoonish outline of a computer with crossed out eyes. He cringed at the thought of having to justify adding an additional 2.5 million dollars to the budget.

"How long will it take to get this back online?" he growled to the technician.

The technician referred to his tablet. "The inventory shows one should be available again in about a week."

"That is one expensive keyboard", he growled once again.

"Replace the part and fix the system. Keep me updated on its status."

---------------

Bryce had 'enjoyed' spending the day imprisoned by Fulcrum. He hadn't been able to see any of the other Fulcrum agents apart from Tommy.

He knew that Sarah wouldn't be able to answer her phone. When it had been time, he left her an innocent sounding voicemail. Tommy certainly had the type of training to realize if Bryce had tried to provide her with any clues to his situation.

It didn't matter, Bryce couldn't think of any shared history that he could use to tip her off.

Perhaps it was better for her not to know. He had always been able to handle situations himself, with possibly having to endure waiting like this being the only exception to that rule.

Eventually Tommy returned with the bag. He put it back over Bryce's head and led him into a vehicle.

Once they began moving, Tommy removed the bag. The two of them sat in the back of a darkened ambulance. The rear windows were frosted so that no one could see in, or he figured, so that he couldn't see out.

The mission appeared like it would begin in earnest when they arrived outside the same nondescript building they had been at before.

Bryce sat in the dark for what felt like 15 minutes without a word from Tommy. He wondered what they were waiting on.

Tommy's phone was the only source of light as it dimly illuminated his face.

"When do I get to know anything else about what I'm looking for?" Bryce asked sarcastically.

"Not tonight", he said putting his phone away. "Something's come up."

Bryce observed the change in his Fulcrum handler's demeanor. Watching Tommy indicate to the driver that tonight's mission had been called off, he knew he had been given a seriously needed window of opportunity.

He couldn't let this opportunity pass him by, he would use the time he now had to discover Fulcrum's objective and complete his mission.


	2. Sept 17 2007, Monday

Monday, 17th

------------

Bryce walked in to the CIA building as if it were just a typical Monday. This was not however a typical Monday.

A concerned voice to his right yelled, "Bryce!?! What the hell happened yesterday? Is everything ok?"

He stopped and turned slightly to face Sarah. She stood outside the control center door.

"Yeah, it's.... complicated", he shrugged and continued on his path.

This morning his path led him directly to his boss's office. The tone that Director Graham used when he had said that he needed to speak to him in person meant his wait would be short, and that the topic was urgent.

"Have you been able to gain any additional information about this rogue group?"

"Not much sir. Fulcrum is going to have me steal computer data from some kind of commercial looking facility. My new handler won't provide me with too many details. He won't brief me any further until the last possible minute."

"Agent Larkin, do you have any idea what kind of data they're interested in, or where they plan to steal it from?"

"No sir, I don't. The Fulcrum agents took my cell and knew about the GPS in my watch. I didn't recognize the area. All I know about the computer is that I will need to use this."

Bryce carefully removed the attachment from his pocket. The reaction that came from Graham provided Bryce with the gravity of the situation.

"There are less than a dozen various types of computer systems where that would be useful. For them to extract data from any of these would be absolutely detrimental to United States' Intelligence."

Graham paused to consider his options. "Don't let anyone else see that attachment. I want you to continue on; prevent the data from falling into Fulcrum's hands at all costs."

"Sir, the group leader, Tommy, doesn't trust me yet. He will have another team watching my every move. If the situation deteriorates, I may need to send it through an intermediate courier."

Graham's tone took a serious turn. "What did you have in mind?"

"I have a contact outside the CIA that I can trust. He's a civilian and he won't be part of Fulcrum. I can count on him to hold the data until I pick it up."

The Director didn't like what he was hearing. He gave himself a few moments to come up with a counter-argument. Those moments came and went without his objection.

"Okay," he said reluctantly, "but I want intel on this civilian first."

Bryce nodded in agreement before leaving.

"A civilian..." Graham shook his head.

If things went bad, there would be too many eggs in an untrained basket that he knew nothing about.

He needed a real 'Plan B'. One with qualified CIA agents he could trust.

The Director turned his chair and began looking for available personnel.

---------------

Charlene took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. It felt good to have a break.

She wondered how long she would have for her holiday. That last mission was the longest one she had been assigned to. Over three months it had taken her across Europe and eventually to the US.

Her time on the beach today had so far been every bit as therapeutic as she had hoped. There was something peaceful about the sound of the waves and the gentle breeze that came with them. She wished for at least a few weeks like this.

That seemed fair: a few weeks of fun and sun on the beach before going back to her usual type of missions. Since she had been given her gun and became a full agent, her missions were still computer related but they now took place out in the field. Sneak in, gain access to whatever system was necessary, do what was required, and get out.

If the research lab had just reported the theft instead of covering it up, she wouldn't have had to break in and get the surveillance footage. What had the lab managers been hoping for? Stealing a chemical compound like that had been a major security breach. With that thief now in custody, she wondered if she would be getting another promotion.

Charlene began dreaming about her future missions before stopping herself. She smiled.

Here and now her most important mission was to get a tan. Enough of a tan to avoid sticking out in LA, but not enough to stick out wherever her next assignment might take her. Maybe just enough of a tan to make friends jealous - if she had ever found the time to have any friends to make jealous.

Charlene began to notice that her rookie experience in the sun had an unintended effect - she had become a bit parched. She wondered what an appropriate drink would be to enjoy in an environment like this. Perhaps something with mango, or better yet pineapple?

Her phone rang. She paused for a moment as she glanced at the number. Charlene turned to look at the waves again. She estimated that she was likely within throwing distance. She sighed softly and decided she needed to take the call anyway.

"Yes sir?" was all her thirsty and disappointed voice could convey.

Director Graham cut to the chase, "We have an immediate matter of national security. I'm assigning you a new mission as of this moment. Since there isn't sufficient time, you will need to maintain your current cover identity. Your assignment will require going undercover at an electronics store; they will be expecting you later today. You will be holding there for an information exchange, possibly involving unaware civilians. It is imperative that you blend into the background and not draw attention to yourself or the exchange. Further mission briefing information and additional documents are being sent to your hotel room. Is this clear?"

"Yes sir. Will this mission be requiring a partner or team?"

"No. This is to be a short term solo mission. A simple information exchange. Get the information, keep it in our hands, and move on - no team or partner required."

"Understood sir," she said before the call ended.

Charlene felt her smile reappear across her face. Short term assignments were usually simple enough, there wouldn't be any mistake-prone partners to complicate things, and there should be plenty of free time for her to return here to work on that tan after all.

---------------

Charlene stood outside of a large electronics store. It was nothing like her relaxing beach. In large yellow lettering were the words 'Buy More'. The dossier left at her hotel room had provided little information on this environment. She felt her background as a hacker naturally would have led her to be a Nerd Herd employee, but she understood that as a sales associate she would be able to remain inside the store for the exchange.

The first challenge to sell her cover would be knowing what she might be selling. The time she had spent on missions meant she was out of touch when it came to consumer electronics, video games, or what was hot and what wasn't. She attempted to compensate for her lack of preparedness by searching the web. Thanks to Google and YouTube she at least now knew how to demonstrate the use of a Wii, and how to play Guitar Hero. She hoped that it would be enough for a good first impression.

Looking around on this late Monday evening, the store seemed rather vacant. The employees that were present mostly reclined watching TV, were playing video games, or were wandering aimlessly as the few available customers remained largely ignored. The most animated sales associate was strapped into a racing seat of some sort, with a firm grasp on the steering wheel in front of him. From where she was standing the sounds coming from the seat's speakers were drowning out the taunts she guessed he was giving his on-screen opponents. Beyond him she noticed the closest thing resembling an office that she had seen so far.

As Charlene entered, she spied a large man looking down at his desk, nearly in tears.

"Last bite of danish for the day" he said shaking his head before ceremoniously eating the remainder of his precious treat. The placard on his desk read "Big Mike". She respectfully waited before she knocked on the door frame.

Big Mike awoke from his trance. "You Charlene?" he asked looking up at her.

As she nodded, he began ruffling through a stack of papers, before pulling out a folder.

Opening it up, he read over her fabricated transfer papers.

"St--- Str--- Strz---" Big Mike was stammering, trying to pronounce her last name.

"Strzechowski. It's Polish", she said in her best American accent.

Big Mike continued to look flustered. If he had this much trouble over her cover name, he would certainly butcher her real name. She wondered if this was the kind of thing that people here were sued over.

"Charlene is okay", she assured him with a comforting smile.

Her new boss sighed heavily and looked relieved.

"Charlene, you come highly recommended from the Echo Park Buy More. You sure you want this job?"

She nodded, trying to get a peek at what her cover achievements had been.

He motioned to her to follow as he got up and walked out into the store. "Okay. Let me give you a piece of advice to make it bearable - do what I do - keep as far away from these jokers as you can!"

Her eyes widened. Big Mike's reaction caused a moment of worry to settle in. She wondered how much, if anything, was missing from her dossier.

"GRIMES!" he yelled abruptly, causing Charlene to jump.

The short bearded employee playing the racing game tried to get up. The seat he was strapped into yanked him back down.

"Ooh, that's gonna leave a mark," he muttered unlocking his seatbelt.

"NEW BUY MORE TRANSFER EMPLOYEE - GIVE HER THE TOUR" Big Mike shouted while pointing at Charlene.

The employee stood and saluted: "Yes sir! Aye sir! Right away sir". With that, Big Mike returned to his office.

"Hi. Welcome to the Buy More. I'm Morgan by the way."

"Charlene," she replied.

"Okay, well Charlene, uh, it looks like you're here to sell some Buy More merchandise."

Morgan looked at his watch before beginning his stationary tour, "Video games are over there... DVDs and music there... the returns desk or 'The Hole' as I like to call it - which you want to avoid by the way - is over there... TVs are on the wall, aaaaaaaannnnnnndddddd the break room is down the hall that way."

"Sorry for the short version," he continued while taking a few steps towards the front exit, "but I only have a few more minutes to go on my shift before I go to my best friend Chuck's tonight, so..."

Morgan stopped himself before resuming with an apologetic tone, "It's no big deal; all the isles are marked and you just have to pretend like you're working while actually avoiding any real work. Anyhoo, welcome to the Buy More!"

Even after this 'tour', she still didn't feel like she knew what to expect from this place. If the other employees here functioned with Morgan's kind of work ethic, it would be more challenging for her to blend in. Charlene had always considered herself to be a workaholic. The only time she wasn't was when her 'work' was to enjoy her time off.

She hoped this assignment would be as brief as Graham had implied. It was hard to imagine that she would have to spend entire days trying to appear to the rest as if she wasn't working. "Must not stand out," she attempted to remind herself.

In the process of accepting her new assignment, she had completely forgotten about that drink she had been planning on enjoying. Her dry throat demanded that she settle for something less desirable.

On her way to the break room, the first thing she noticed were the many corporate 'inspirational' posters hanging everywhere. With amusing concepts like 'Buy More dollars', she seriously doubted that any of their attempts to program their employees could possibly have any effect.

Charlene struck that last thought - in the corner of the break room was a lone employee who by all appearances might be susceptible. He was dressed in Nerd Herd attire and looked different than his coworkers. He sat emotionless playing a 'vintage' handheld video game that could have very well been straight from the 1980's. Neither her presence in the room nor her hand waving seemed to have any effect on him. She began to realize just how unusual this place could be.

The large vending machine labelled "Cold Drinks" beckoned. Putting the money into the machine, she pushed the button for some lemon flavored iced tea. Nothing happened.

She pushed the iced tea button again. Still nothing.

The vending machine was clearly plugged in and turned on, but being stubborn. None of the other drink selections nor the money return button were functioning either.

"It's a Nutrimatic machine," a dull voice from behind her informed.

Charlene spun around. From here she could better read his Nerd Herd name tag: Jeff. Jeff's eyes remained fixed on his game.

"You don't want it anyway," he deadpanned, "it doesn't taste entirely like tea. And their complaints division never returns my calls."

"Thanks!" She felt her friendly smile was being largely ignored.

Charlene attempted to speculate the type of training Jeff would have gone through to gain that level of peripheral awareness. Surely he hadn't been an agent at some point?

An even more terrifying realization interrupted her train of thought: after 15 minutes of what she had just witnessed at this store, who or what would she encounter tomorrow during her first full day?

Perhaps she would need something stronger than just lemon flavored iced tea.


	3. Sept 18 2007, Tuesday

Tuesday, 18th

-------------

"STAY IN THE VAN!"

She watched him back away from the door and sit back down.

Sarah calmed as she saw that she was being listened to.

She adjusted her headset a bit before continuing. "The Ink & Paint Club just changed their security rotation. You're close enough that they might get a visual on you. It won't be safe to proceed without first taking them into account."

Sarah looked at the feed from the external camera. "There isn't enough time to do that before we reach daylight. The operation for tonight will have to be postponed. Understood?"

"Affirmative Agent Walker"

Sarah watched her screen as the rookie agent climbed into the driver's seat and began driving away. She kept her eyes on the van's GPS until it indicated that it had left the mission area.

She looked at her watch and removed her headset. The morning shift was about to take over.

She rubbed her eyes for a moment. Over the last few weeks she had eventually grown accustomed to the effect that her temporary probation had inflicted on a nightly basis.

In almost a week she would be allowed to resume her regular duties with missions that didn't require her to oversee recent graduates.

Part of her desperately wanted to know what Bryce had said. Had it really been him that effectively got her 'benched', or had her feelings for him so obviously affected her abilities?

Sarah could feel the guilt getting the best of her.

Bryce had been held hostage at gunpoint on previous missions before, and she had always been able to kill his captor with a single shot. Why was it that this time she had missed? How could all of that training betray her and leave her to wound Bryce instead? She watched herself trying to take the shot again. It was almost embarrassing how he had to use the surprise of the moment to save himself.

Sarah felt bad about how that day had unfolded. At least it hadn't been a major wound, but the look on his face conveyed as much worry as it did his disappointment.

It was a face she had difficulty keeping out of her mind, even now in an environment where her fellow mission controllers had traded their guns for headsets.

Sarah wished she could blame someone - someone must have overreacted, someone must have exaggerated the situation way out of context. She knew the only person she could really blame was herself.

She had taken the shot when she shouldn't have. That self-assured feeling she always had before she pulled the trigger had this time been clouded by her concern for Bryce. Now she wondered if she had wounded his feelings for her more than she had wounded him physically.

The 'counselor' she had been required to visit as part of her probation period had been of little help.

Dr. Beckett seemed interested in evaluating her behavior and her life before the CIA. He told her that he wanted to understand her situation from her perspective. Fortunately for her, life before Sarah Walker was off limits. The sessions had therefore been filled with vague suggestions and whimsical ideas that he directed towards his best guesses as to her former life.

She was glad that time spent going nowhere was coming to an end. After all, she wasn't Jenny or any of the other travelling aliases from her youth. Why hadn't her counselor been able to recognize that? Soon Sarah would get her chance to demonstrate who she was - an agent for the CIA. A successful agent that made a difference by going out on field missions.

As she left the control room, she stood alone in the empty hallway and wondered if she would get to be paired up with Bryce.

---------------

Sarah's apartment reflected her sense of style - clean, bright, functional, and just enough of a personal touch to keep it from being spartan.

Dr. Beckett had even wanted to talk about her apartment. He seemed persistent in knowing what it felt like to be home. His questions implied he thought it was healthy to display photos of loved ones, gifts from friends and family, or even souvenirs.

Sarah had tried to change the subject. Rather than admit her apartment's true state, she made it a point to stress the tactical significance of function following form. Besides, an agent never knew what surprises lurked around the corner.

She didn't have any friends or family to put on display. Her friends and family were agents and the CIA. Putting their photos up would have put them at risk. The only pictures she allowed herself to keep were privately stored on her phone, under password protection.

The way that she had stumbled through her defense had been obvious to her counselor. He had continued with his suggestion that it would be an opportunity for her to establish a feeling of a natural home environment.

"Maybe later," she said softly, falling backwards onto the bed.

Looking up at the ceiling, she reheard Bryce yesterday telling her that 'it was complicated'. It was a phrase he often used when he didn't want to talk about something.

She wished she could read him, she wished she could see what was behind that mask. Mission after mission, she had been able to read and profile allies as well as enemies. What made him different?

Sarah sighed. After the incident she had hardly been able to see him. Sunday she was supposed to finally have her chance to reconnect with him, but he simply hadn't shown up. Making it worse was that he hadn't even given her an excuse for brushing her off.

Why couldn't he give her a reason for being distant? He admitted that he hadn't been given any missions yet. He simply chose to hide behind that impenetrable smile.

Sarah wondered if all serious relationships were this difficult.

Why couldn't she just have an honest relationship where she didn't feel like she had to constantly guess how he felt about her? A relationship that didn't include those fake displays of emotion that they were trained to utilize.

Love wasn't part of a mission.

Honest relationships were something that normal everyday people could have - people not her. Sarah told herself to quit daydreaming before it ruined her mood.

After all, she thought with a smile, she needed her full concentration for a much bigger mission - to get up off of the bed, take a shower, and get some sleep.

---------------

Sarah felt the shower wash away a full night's worth of sitting at a station. It was refreshing and invigorating, normally a good thing, except that now she couldn't fall asleep.

She glanced over at her clock radio. It indicated that it was nearly 9am.

She wondered when her drowsiness would return.

Sarah continued staring at her clock radio before eventually chuckling. Her counselor had suggested that she listen to music, thinking that it might be therapeutic for her.

It was the only suggestion Sarah felt likely held any merit. After all, she used to listen to music.

Sarah reached over and turned the radio on. It only took her a few notes to recognize the melody.

"Great," she said in disbelief. The station was midway though Cake's song "Short Skirt Long Jacket." Sarah shook her head slightly. Why was it that after all this time that she suddenly heard this song almost once a week?

Before she had become Sarah Walker - CIA agent, Jenny Burton had developed a true love for music. All the time she spent listening to the radio in-between cons exposed her to the bands and the songs that were popular.

Eventually, she had even started identifying individual memories and places by the music that she had been listening to at that time. She guessed that if she had been able to make any friends during her childhood, she would have had at least something in common to talk about.

This song reminded her of the mission that had gotten her initially noticed by her superiors.

It was the mission that had changed the direction of her career. Until that point the name Sarah Walker felt like just another alias, and the early missions weren't so different from the cons she had grown up on. She was just Jenny with a gun, and Jenny held her habit of listening to music to fill the time.

This song had been one of her favorites then; she could remember playing it over and over. It was a wonder her CD player hadn't been worn out from that track alone.

That mission had been a bit of a double edged sword. Afterwards, Sarah Walker received missions that were much more involved and no longer felt like the simpler cons from her youth. She no longer had the kind of time to herself that Jenny had been accustomed to.

At some point along the way, everything that had represented Jenny somehow faded away.

Sarah knew she had outgrown Jenny's needs. It was what Sarah Walker had achieved for herself after that transformation that had eventually led her to Bryce.

When she was with him, she didn't think about the things she had given up on - like music.

A newer song began to play. It was one she didn't recognize. The lyrics were fairly generic and stressed the difficulty of relationships. It wasn't the kind of music Sarah wanted to listen to right now. She changed the channel only to find yet another contemporary song she didn't recognize agonizing over someone not being there for her.

How had her counselor imagined that this was supposed to help?

Sarah reached over and slapped the radio's power button. If this was the kind of message the radio provided her, she probably hadn't missed much over the years that she distanced herself from the music scene.

All these songs were doing were stirring up the personal angst from her past or pointing out the flaws in her present.

---------------

Chuck sat at the Nerd Herd desk.

His iPod played his latest auditory experiment: 'Jill Angst Mix 2007'.

It wasn't having the desired cathartic effect. He thought that it might draw out all of the harsh feelings of being hurt and betrayed. In their place, there would be room to revisit the better memories he had together with Jill and the friendships he had while at Stanford.

This experiment was a disaster. The musical reminders were making him feel even worse about losing Jill, about leaving Stanford behind, and even about his present lackluster life at the Buy More.

He stopped the player from doing further damage and slowly removed his earbuds.

A green blur flew up in front of him.

"Somebody today is a big deeeaaaalllll..." glowed Morgan, rapidly tapping the Nerd Herd counter.

"Thanks buddy", Chuck held up his hands in mock protest as he stood up, "but I was just doing my duty."

"Chuck, for once this isn't about a video game. Although I do still appreciate your skills."

Morgan's slightly serious tone about something non-game related was almost alarming. Chuck furrowed his brow in confusion.

"The new redhead girl over by the PlayStations. She's totally been checking you out!"

Chuck began to visibly groan. Taking any relationship advice from Morgan was generally a bad idea. Letting him set you up on a date doubly so.

"Look! Look for yourself!"

Chuck glanced up from the Nerd Herd desk towards the PlayStation area. There a new redheaded Buy More sales employee stood looking not at Chuck, but at the PlayStation accessories.

"Morgan... I apprec..."

"Chuck! Look, I know today is the rescheduled 'Mourning-Jill-Monday', but c'mon... I talked to her today... her name is Charlene, and she's a gamer dude! An old-school gamer! Classy old-school though, like 'olde' that ends with an 'e'."

Morgan was too emphatic to allow Chuck to butt in. "How many women have the code to the original Contra memorized, huh? - that's hot! No, that's 8-bit hotness!"

Chuck stood stunned and paused as if to almost contemplate Morgan's last insight. He put his hand on Morgan's shoulder. His voice carried a slightly deflated mood.

"Buddy, I appreciate what you're trying to do. Really. But... I'm just not ready for a relationship yet."

"Hey, what's going on?" Lester and Jeff strode back to the Buy More from what they had termed their 'Mac installation artistry'.

"Morgan is trying to set me up with the new girl."

Lester's eyes lit up. "New girl?"

"Yeah", Morgan nodded behind him, "she started yesterday while you guys were out."

Chuck looked at his watch. "Hey, weren't you and Jeff supposed to be back a couple of hours ago?"

Lester glared at Jeff. "Yes, well, that was not coffee that Jeff brought in his thermos. I ended up having to drag him back to the herder."

All eyes turned to Jeff. He did his best to look innocent. "I have coffee in it now", he said sheepishly.

Lester turned around to where Chuck and Morgan had been looking. "So... what's her story?"

"Lester, she's new. Please don't scare her."

Lester frowned. "Please Charles, I don't need your help. I do fine on my own." He checked his breath and walked towards his intended prey, Jeff in tow.

"Hi. My name is Lester", he said trying to sound suave. "But... You can think of me as Manos; I kinda take care of the place when the master is away". He motioned towards Big Mike's office.

Charlene stood dumbfounded. It was too early in the morning to be this surreal.

'Lester' had just introduced himself, and he was already trying a pick-up line on her. A pick-up line that included a quote from an infamously bad movie. To try something like this, 'Lester' must either be adventurous - or aloof.

Charlene observed Lester's sidekick. He was hovering next to him. Jeff had an oddness that differed from yesterday's. His eyes were wide open as they were fixed on Lester's profile. He seemed eager about... something. She took the chance guess - probably to see if Lester would strike out.

Following her assignment to the letter meant she would need to be free of Lester's attention. There were many ways that she could enjoy dealing with someone like him, but only a couple that wouldn't ruin her cover.

She was left with no choice, she would go with flexing some of her Nerd-Fu.

"Torgo" she announced.

"Excuse me?" he blurted.

"Torgo. He says 'I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the master is away.'"

She watched Lester sink momentarily and turn towards his still grinning friend. "Yes, well, I could see how you would think that. I'm referring to the original director's edition on which the TV episode was based." He looked on to see if his backpedalling had any effect.

It did not. Charlene simply shook her head, calling Lester's bluff.

He barely managed to say "Welcome to the Buy More" before turning around and heading back to the safety of the Nerd Herd desk. She could faintly hear Lester's friend say "Pay up!".

She kept her smile on the inside. Some battles could be won without explosives and hand-to-hand combat.


	4. Sept 19 2007, Wednesday

Wednesday, 19th

---------------

"STAY IN THE VAN!"

Casey grunted. He had a difficult time telling himself to stay put. He might need to say it again just to keep himself awake.

When Casey had transferred to become a member of the NSA, he knew that things would be different. Duties that had included flying jets and blowing things up would be traded for new types of missions. In order to better serve his country, he was willing to give up half of that action. A position at the NSA would still include some regular gunplay, and he would certainly get to blow things up from time to time.

As he sat alone, he did the math. A mission like this had none of that; half of nothing was still nothing.

Casey could feel his attention waining. He felt himself daydreaming about ways to shoot or otherwise blow up the dog. It was the only way he thought he would ever be free from listening to the ambassador's constantly inane monologue of how he needed to pamper his poodle. The various methods that led to the pet's demise made Casey grunt with relief.

It had been nearly five weeks of intercepting encrypted communications and still he hadn't discovered anything that would suggest that the ambassador was transferring any stolen secrets.

He ate another chocolate chip cookie to refocus on the task at hand.

An incoming call on one of the van's monitors disrupted his boredom. He straightened himself in his seat immediately.

"Major Casey. This is a secure line?"

"Yes ma'am, secure."

General Beckman continued, "Good, I am reassigning you to a new mission as of this moment. There's an immediate security matter in Washington that I need you to handle personally."

Casey's wish fulfillment caused him to speak out of turn, "What kind of security matter?"

"We have recently become aware of a traitor within the CIA. This traitor may be working with a group plotting against this country."

Casey became invigorated with an added sense of purpose. "What shall we do when we come in contact with this... CIA traitor?"

"Major Casey, we all have our skillsets... You will do what you do well. If there are no other questions I will brief you further on your arrival."

Casey shook his head, "Understood, no questions ma'am."

The image of General Beckman went dark.

Casey hummed with pleasure.

A traitor was no better than any villain, any terrorist, or any other "bad guy" that he had to deal with. Anyone who fell into one of these groups directly opposed the United States, and in doing so, directly opposed him.

In some ways a traitor was even worse. A traitor not only betrayed whatever they had stood for, but also betrayed their country and the people they had worked with. A traitor was a disgrace to anyone who had ever believed in that person.

He remembered the first traitor he was responsible for apprehending. A federal agent by the name of Dobson had attempted to kidnap a protected government asset and sell her to the highest bidder. Casey's early dedication to his craft led him to Dobson in relatively short order.

Casey could once again feel the anticipation of that day. He had been permitted to interrogate Dobson in order to discover who he had been in contact with. His superiors had instructed Casey to only utilize the standard intimidation techniques to draw out the information. The younger NSA agent however got carried away in the moment and found himself using a more hands-on approach. Thinking back on it now, he wouldn't have changed a thing.

He had gotten his information quickly, and it had all been validated. In the process, he had even impressed a General who had been observing through the interrogation room window. The General had been impressed with his level of efficiency. When Casey left the room, the General told him that 'off the record', he gave him 'a gold star in his book'.

Casey's experience on missions and his years in the business had taught him that pain could indeed be scary.

His quickening pulse brought him back to the present. He grunted with pleasure again. The CIA had a traitor on board, a traitor that they couldn't deal with themselves. The NSA would never have a problem like this. Agents like Major John Casey would see to that.

Casey drew his gun, and admired it for a while. During this kind of mission, there would definitely be gunplay.

This was going to be fun.

---------------

It was only halfway into Sarah's day off, and she wasn't having fun. She had already run out of things to do while at her apartment.

She sat up and nibbled on her pecan and cinnamon pastry.

As much as she had told herself she wouldn't think about him, her thoughts turned to Bryce.

What had she done to him that he would continue to give her the cold shoulder?

Sarah sighed loudly and looked down towards her toes.

Whatever it had been, she wished that she could understand and be forgiven. It just wasn't the same without him, there was an emptiness that was beginning to get the better of her.

"Snap out of it Walker," she addressed to herself. An agent would never become this distracted.

She got up and stood next to the window. She looked down and started watching the normal everyday people she kept safe when she successfully completed her mission objectives.

Sarah began hearing the familiar echoes of her dad.

"Angel, you know I need you on this - I can't do it by myself." he told a much younger Jenny.

Jenny looked down at her bruised knee.

"We can do this!" he continued on with an increasingly encouraging tone.

Her father's attempt to win her over was being an uphill battle.

"Look honey; everyone lies, everyone cheats, and everyone steals. If we don't do it, someone else will."

"C'mon, it's what we do. It's the reason today you got to be 'Tricia McMillan'. It's the reason you got a new bike, a new Walkman, and why we get to live like this!"

Jenny looked up at her father. Her face portrayed her true state of mind.

"How come I can't have any friends?"

Her father paused for a moment as he began fishing for the right words before sitting down next to her.

"They're not good enough," he finally answered.

"Those people you see out there, they're just normal everyday people."

"You don't want to be normal. You and I are better than that."

"Normal people," he began to emphasize, "are stuck in their dull, boring lives. They limit themselves to the same place, the same house, the same car. They don't have any variety or any excitement. That's part of what makes them normal."

"Besides, being normal means being forced to settle instead of getting what you really want."

"But you know why they do that darlin? It's because they're too trusting. They're too willing to listen to people like us because they are missing something. They let themselves get talked into things, they let themselves get conned, and they let themselves get hurt."

"You don't want to be like that do you?"

Jenny shook her head.

"Right! Look at us! We're living our dream!"

"We have the kind of life that normal people are jealous of. We aren't dull. We aren't limited. We get to travel across the country. We get to see new places. We get to meet new people. We get to be whoever we want. And, we get to buy ourselves whatever we want."

Her father's salesmanship began to take effect, Jenny smiled slightly.

His tone became more serious. "Honey, you can't left yourself be normal. You have to be careful who you trust. The only person I trust in this whole world is you. You know that right?"

Jenny nodded.

"Good," he said with a smile, "because what I want is for us to have fun... and anything and everything we dream of!"

Sarah continued to observe as the people below walked along the shops, sat together at outdoor cafes, and met up with friends. They seemed happy enough, and didn't appear bothered by so many self-imposed limitations.

She glanced around her apartment. Her dad had another 7 months to go before he would be out of prison.

She shook her head slowly. She felt almost embarrassed to admit to herself that she used to think of those con jobs as 'quality family time'.

Sarah turned for another piece of sweet comfort food, only to notice that it too was also absent from the room.

"Damn," even her attention to detail had been affected.

Her voice carried sharp sarcasm as it repeated a line that had been drilled into her mind: "A good con man can get out of town any time he wants."

How did he excuse his situation now, or any of the other times he had been caught?

Jenny had been left behind before. She understood it was necessary for her dad to go on solo missions, and that when she did get a chance to be involved, that she wouldn't be needed for every step.

She had looked after herself staying in hotels or while waiting patiently in the car. There had always been a TV or radio to keep her company.

Sarah began to slightly frown. One of the cafe employees had put out a sign advertising their Thanksgiving themed coffee.

Thanksgiving was one of the three holidays she didn't care for. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's all felt alien to her. There was something about them that made her feel uncomfortably out of place.

Her favorite Thanksgiving so far had been when Jenny wasn't needed for one of her dad's con jobs. He had left her at a nicer than typical hotel because "she was worth it". After he left, she began flipping through the channels on TV, enjoying the meal from room service.

Many of the channels featured crowds of cheering people at one parade or another. To Jenny it was incomprehensible. Why would all those people so willingly stand in the cold together like that? Eventually she flipped to some kind of comedy channel. It was running a marathon of episodes from a show that she couldn't get enough of.

Sarah's frown began to convert into a faint smile.

Why couldn't there be more in life like that show, she wondered. It had made her feel good. It had a simple premise: a guy and some robots made fun of the movies they were forced to watch. The jokes they made and the things they pointed out were all clear and straight to the point. In between movies, the show's characters even jokingly gave each other a hard time, but it looked like they were always having fun and it always seemed like each day ended on a happy note. The most surprising thing to Jenny had been just how much it made her laugh.

Sarah felt the corners of her faint smile begin to fade. She hadn't laughed like that since Jenny had on that day - at least not without it needing to appear as part of some con or cover.

She wondered what it must be like for an everyday person to feel normal. As an agent with the CIA, she knew that life was really much more complicated than they would ever realize. Even so, there was still some appeal to it.

She had hoped her relationship with Bryce would be less complicated. Normal people had relationships too, and this one had nothing to do with the CIA's involvement. There shouldn't be any hidden agendas, no ulterior motives, no lies, and no one getting betrayed.

Why hadn't the CIA given her the details of her first mission back on the job? Right now she felt like she would take almost any kind of mission, preferably if it would be with Bryce. She wished for another holiday together. Something felt different between them, she just couldn't put her finger on it.

Sarah noticed the faint reflection of Jenny in the window. She took a deep breath. This lack of control was exactly the kind of distraction that had gotten her benched in the first place. Sarah Walker would do something more constructive with her time.

She grabbed her gloves and walked towards the dining room.

There her punching bag waited for another of her therapeutic workouts.

---------------

Casey felt like punching something.

He looked at the live satellite image to find out why he had been sitting in traffic for nearly 45 minutes. Ahead an accident was in the process of being cleaned up - on the other side of the highway. Casey gripped his steering wheel tightly.

"Rubberneckers!" Rubberneckers were keeping him from getting to DC on time.

He growled at the morons ahead of him.

Casey turned to face his trusted copilot. He gathered a full breath of air before slowly exhaling.

"Sorry sir," he said apologetically to the photo of President Reagan.

Reagan was riding shotgun tonight with a small bonsai tree. Casey knew by looking at the contents of the passenger seat that he would have to remain calm. He needed a distraction and he needed it now.

Casey focused his thoughts on how he enjoyed travelling light. All he had in the Crown Vic were his assorted weaponry organized neatly in the trunk, his photo, the bonsai tree, and the new handgun he had recently been taking everywhere.

"My gun!" He had almost forgotten that while searching for his sanity during his mission that he decided to name his gun. It seemed the proper thing to do after spending this much time together.

The guy that operated his preferred shooting range had suggested 'Vera'. He liked the name 'Vera', but 'Vera' sounded better for a bigger type of gun - maybe a sniper rifle.

Casey had been partial to the name 'Diane', but his boss would never approve of that.

He imagined himself drawing his weapon on a badguy. "Zoe!" he shouted. 'Zoe' had a nice sound to it - powerful, but calm. Calm was not the way he felt when he got to fire a weapon.

Casey imagined himself drawing his weapon again. "Emily!" he said surprising himself. 'Emily?' 'Emily' was a happy sounding name. His imaginary villain was smiling back at him. Nobody should be smiling at him when he had his gun pointed at them.

He tried again. "Ilsa!" Casey paused before grunting with pleasure. 'Ilsa' was a great name. It conveyed power, control, finesse, skill, and an undeniable sexiness. Casey's gun demonstrated most of those traits, but it wasn't deserving of a name like 'Ilsa'. 'Ilsa' was the kind of name that he'd grant to a stealth fighter.

He needed a name that said power and control without the happy parts. He imagined drawing his weapon at the badguy. "Mother!" he said assertively. 'Mother' felt like the right name. Who didn't obey their mother? Who always had the final say in one's destiny? 'Mother' was the perfect name. Casey's imaginary villain was laughing at him. He shook his head.

This traffic jam needed to stop now. The satellite image showed he was getting pretty close, but not quite there yet. Casey rolled his eyes at his misfortune.

Naming a gun shouldn't be this hard. Pilots named planes all the time, and no one sat around like this coming up with a name like 'Mother'.

He grunted in frustration at his equivalent of writer's block. As he drew his weapon, his imaginary villain yawned while waiting for him to introduce his gun.

"Saffron!" he mumbled in desperation. Casey raised his eyebrow at the thought.

"About time!" he yelled as he stomped on the gas pedal. He had finally reached and surpassed the source of his automotive anger.

Maybe now he could actually make it to DC.

---------------

Casey stood tall and saluted.

"At ease Major," General Beckman said.

"Our intel suggests that a rogue group of agents we have recently become aware of are planning to target one of five possible government facilities. You will be responsible for ascertaining which is the intended target, and preventing them from their objectives."

Casey noted the pause in the General's speech as his opportunity to ask his first question, "What do we know about this rogue group of agents?"

"We know that they have been actively recruiting burned agents, and recently at least one active duty agent."

General Beckman presented a stack of photos to Casey.

"The man sitting on the park bench is Phillip Cowen. From what we have been able to determine he is the group's primary recruiter. His latest recruit is the CIA agent Bryce Larkin. We believe that he is the traitor that they will use to break in to one of our joint-venture research facilities."

"Agent Larkin's most recent partner at the CIA is an agent by the name of Sarah Walker. Currently she is off of active field duty, and hasn't yet had any direct contact with the members of this rogue group."

"I want you to assemble and lead the security team to make sure that this group does not succeed in whatever they are planning. Keep an eye on both Larkin and Walker. Am I clear Major Casey?"

"Yes ma'am, crystal clear." said Casey failing to hide his eager smile.

"Good, you are dismissed. Happy hunting."


	5. Sept 20 2007, Thursday

Thursday, 20th

--------------

Ellie entered the front door to her apartment. She was exhausted.

"Hey babe!" said an overly alert Devon.

Ellie did her best to muster half a smile before landing on the couch. She hoped some of the energy from Devon's morning stationary bike workout would rub off on her.

"That bad huh?" he continued.

"Yeah, I think everyone at the convention must've eaten something bad. I'm gonna go take a shower and go to bed, okay?"

Devon continued pedalling in place. "Okay honey."

Ellie managed to lift herself up and made her way down the hall. The sound from a videogame came from behind Chuck's closed door.

"Hey, you better get going if don't want to be late for work!" she yelled towards it.

"Thanks but I have the day off!" was the reply she got back.

Her eyes widened and her nose slightly wrinkled a bit. Morgan had a way of bringing about an alertness that several cups of coffee hadn't.

She turned around and abruptly walked into the room.

"Morgan! What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Morning Ellie," he said in an upbeat tone, "everything alright?"

"No Morgan, everything is not alright. What are you doing here? Where's Chuck?"

Morgan paused his game. "No need to worry, Chuck left with plenty of time."

"This morning," he motioned with the controller still in his hand, "I am dedicated to improving my craft. As a fellow professional, I'm sure you understand."

Ellie's voice was becoming noticeably frayed. "Isn't there somewhere else you can be dedicated"

"Hey, I heard yelling, everything okay babe?"

As Devon entered Chuck's room, he spotted Morgan. "Bro! Know what next Monday is???"

"Of course I do," he said almost defensively, "I'd never forget Chuck's birthday." He began to smile proudly, "I already got him something too. I got him on the super-exclusive preorder waiting list for Dangeresque 3!"

Morgan's excitement fell on deaf ears. Instead of sharing enthusiasm, he simply got two blank stares.

"C'mon, it's only the most highly anticipated preorder waiting list for 2007!!!"

To his dismay, the blank stares at him continued. "Well, Chuck's gonna love it. What are you getting him?"

It was Devon's turn to smile with excitement. "We're gonna throw him a huge party!"

Ellie turned and shot him a look of concern. "Oh Devon no. No no no no."

Morgan seemed surprised. "A party?"

"What's wrong babe?" Devon asked innocently.

Ellie decided to stop things from getting out of hand. "No one from the Buy More is coming to this party."

Morgan looked visibly confused. "Wait, if no one from the Buy More is invited, then who will be there?"

Ellie's exhaustion made her even more threatening. "People Morgan. Real, normal, live people. People from work."

"We're gonna get Chuck a girlfriend!" Devon chimed in.

As Ellie glared at her boyfriend, Morgan thought the idea over. "Is that even legal?" he asked aloud.

Ellie's glare shifted back to the other troublesome male in the room. "It's time for Chuck to move on and that includes moving on from the Buy More!"

"I can't take this right now," she said raising her hands into the air as she left the room. "I'm going to bed."

Morgan sat down on the edge of Chuck's bed looking distraught.

Captain Awesome waited a moment before making sure Ellie was out of range.

"Don't worry bro," he said in a lowered tone as he slapped the side of Morgan's shoulder.

"You're Chuck's best bud, of course you can come."

"Really?" Morgan replied, lightening up a little.

"Really," was Awesome's assertive answer.

Morgan tried to imagine what Ellie and Awesome had in mind. A party, with no one but him from the Buy More. Real people.

"I don't get it," he admitted shrugging.

Awesome tried to keep his party energy from making its way down the hall. "There will be women there Morgan. Lots of available women."

Morgan struggled to weigh his options. If Captain Awesome was talking about women like this, then they'd likely be hot. He wasn't sure he was ready to think of someone else the way he thought of Ellie, but maybe he'd give Awesome's scenario the benefit of the doubt.

He stood up and straighted out his shirt. "And these women, they'll be in to me?"

"Don't sweat it," Awesome said, "a bunch of the guys will be there. Just throw the ball around with us, and you'll blend right in."

"Wait - if you guys are gonna be throwing something around," Morgan said nervously, "shouldn't I have some kind of... safety padding... or something?"

Awesome began to laugh. "What, how about a cup?"

Morgan shook his head, "No thanks, I'm not thirsty."

Captain's confusion gave Morgan the moment to make his decision. "Alright. Cool, I'm in."

Awesome stood proudly. "Cool indeed. Dude! We are bringing in the reinforcements - it's gonna be crazygonuts awesome! High-five bro!"

---------------

Charlene removed the last wireless printer from her cart and put it onto the display shelf.

She looked at her watch, it was 13:42. She could only wonder how Big Mike thought unloading the new inventory was going to take all day. She had hours to go, and no work left to fill it.

Charlene realized her work performance would make her stand out from her coworkers. She needed to make sure she didn't become 'employee of the month' or anything.

She began evaluating her options - she could either pace herself and work slower, or she could use her remaining time to goof off like everyone else. She smiled. The latter choice sounded more like a fun way to maintain her cover.

As she began towing her cart back to the rear storage room, she reflected a moment on her assignment. It was now into her third full day and there hadn't been any further developments in her mission. She still didn't have a better idea of what, where, or who might be involved in this 'information exchange' at the Buy More.

It wasn't unusual for these kinds of short missions with simple objectives to have little intel. Likely anyone here at the Buy More that might possibly become a threat to the exchange had been checked out and passed. Beyond that, they wouldn't have prepared full intel sheets for her to review.

She had taken the initiative during times like this to gather her own intel. Charlene preferred having a good idea of the scope of the situation, knowing what was going on, and having at least a conceptual idea of what the variables were. The frustrating thing for her was that she had been left with a lot of unknowns.

Assignments with this many unknowns could be vague for good reason. Normally it meant that there was something highly important at stake. For the information exchange to involve one or more civilians, and unaware at that, the importance of the mission suggested just the opposite.

She had actively amused herself by imagining if anyone here would be one of those possible 'unaware civilians'. To that end, she had mentally ranked her new coworkers into a list. At first it seemed like it would just be a fun thing to do, but with the mission seemingly getting longer each day and with surprising sources of information, she had a list that she felt was fairly solid.

At the lower end of the list, she was pretty confident that Big Mike would not be a likely candidate. From what she could tell, he preferred a management style where he didn't know what was really going on, and if he found out it would be by accident. She imagined someone could pull the fire alarm, and he would just ask to be told when the fire was out.

Lester was also a safe bet at the bottom of the list. Since he had tried his pick-up line on Tuesday morning, she had definitely put him in the aloof category. As far as she had been able to notice, he regularly spent his time trying to sound clever by usually incorrectly quoting TV and movie references. Fortunately for him, his soulmate Jeff seemed to be the only one who found it entertaining.

Speaking of Jeff, Charlene also had him safely in the not-involved end of her list. Despite Jeff's uncanny peripheral awareness, it seemed like his general real-world awareness was a bit off. While it surely made life difficult for him, she guessed at least he got to share that same out-of-world existence with his friend.

Ranking closer to the middle of her list, Harry Tang just barely scored as also unlikely. Setting him apart from many of the seasonal employees that appeared lower in the list, Harry at least had an awareness and an attention for what was going on at the Buy More. What hurt his chances somewhat were his tendencies to often notice the wrong things. Unless someone involved in the exchange was violating a Buy More company policy, the whole operation could almost take place right in front of him. She found it funny how Jeff had inconspicuously snuck around his back for an early lunch while he lectured some poor delivery person on the proper protocol for Buy More deliveries.

If nothing else, she personally hoped neither Jeff, Lester, nor Harry would end up becoming involved.

Towards the top of her possible candidates, she had essentially narrowed it down to three higher scoring possibilities.

Charlene found Morgan rather likable. He had come across as friendly, thoughtful, loyal to his friends, and just a tad hyper. Despite the sound of the advice he had given her on her first night, Morgan had a truly useful sense of what was going on at the Buy More. Charlene had quickly learned that when he spotted her noticing Chuck on her first full day.

In his favor, Morgan actually had a pretty good cover. With his appearance and his behavior, no one seemed to take him seriously or perceive him as a threat - even when he tried.

Charlene wishfully kept Morgan out of the top two spots on her list for a good reason. Successfully executing an information exchange, involving secrets of some level, required a low-key attitude and discretion. All it had taken Charlene to get him to open up on Tuesday morning was her brief mention of playing Nintendo games from the mid-80's. By midday they were having lunch together, and he had eventually managed between bites to tell her several stories about pretty much everyone there. While Morgan had in fact been a very valuable source of information to her cause, she didn't want Morgan's weakness to negatively impact national security.

Charlene as of yet found it hard to decide which of her two remaining candidates should take the top spot. While it was unclear how many, if at all, civilians may be involved, she hoped these two weren't involved at the same time. She was fairly sure that their two differing styles would clash. Right now her top spot on the list leaned slightly towards Anna.

Anna stood out from her coworkers at the Buy More. In the three days Charlene had been on duty, Anna had already demonstrated that she had the strongest willpower and self control of anyone.

According to Morgan, she was also still a bit of a mystery too - even after having been here almost a year. He had noted on several occasions where she would reveal something from her otherwise secretive past. Most of the time it would either totally surprise them or totally scare them. Morgan had also told her at great length the story of how Anna had been able to get him back into his computer after he accidentally locked himself out. Charlene couldn't help but feel a little good herself the way Morgan boasted Anna's technical prowess. Not every guy felt comfortable around skilled 'hacker chicks'.

What had really caught Charlene's attention though was when Morgan brought up a story about Anna's sword practice. According to him, a few weeks ago a Buy More ad group decided it would be a really good idea to have employees record videos after hours reviewing movies, games, and products. After one of these 'reality-ads', Jeff began to take down the camera. Anna instructed him to leave it - that she would be recording herself performing martial arts. Jeff had begun to object until he saw the very real sword at her side.

Charlene felt that if Anna had only just arrived at the Buy More recently, the CIA might possibly have considered her a formidable counter-agent.

Far less intimidating, and far less likely to be wielding a sword, Chuck in many ways was Anna's opposite. Chuck was friendly and considerate to both his coworkers and customers alike. He didn't hold anything back, and all his openness eliminated any potential for mystery. It was hard to imagine that he didn't hold some secrets from his best friend, but Morgan's assertions carried some weight.

Like Anna, nearly everyone took Chuck serious, including Anna. It seemed that the Nerd Herd and Buy More employees looked to Chuck whenever it was time for someone to make decisions. Morgan had made it a point to emphasize that it was Chuck's 'good-heartedness' that had earned that kind of respect, and not just being in the right place at the right time.

Charlene's observations had so far supported most of Morgan's claims. While admiring his attention to detail and his ability to get things done, she felt a bit better that she wasn't the only one at the store that held that quality in high regard. Ultimately she felt bad for him - a work ethic like his meant he likely didn't fit in with his peers.

Charlene figured that if Chuck was involved in the exchange, things would run smoothly. His level of honesty and obvious sense of responsibility would make sure he did the right thing for his country.

She did feel she would need to keep a closer eye on him however. His will wasn't nearly as strong as Anna's. When Chuck's workload thinned, and when no one was around, he looked slightly depressed. Morgan had implied that there was something that regularly bothered Chuck, but he hadn't been willing to mention it in any further detail. If the situation got complicated during the exchange, that trait could be his Achilles heel.  
Charlene pulled her cart into the rear storage room, and placed it with the other empty inventory carts.

As her phone began to ring, she felt eager to possibly learn any additional mission information.

"Sir?"

Graham was brief. "We're sending out two additional agents to add to your team. They both have technical backgrounds, but less field experience than you. I want you to take the lead on this assignment. They will be posing as transfer employees from the same Buy More as you, so you'll have an excuse to be seen together."

Charlene felt herself become alarmed. A mission objective this simple and short term shouldn't require establishing a team.

"Sir, has there been a change in the mission?"

"No. The mission will proceed as designed. We want to ensure no one is tracking the exchange. Your team will be the extra eyes to make sure that no one trails you or the source."

"Sir, can you provide information on the exchange itself?"

"Details about this mission remain classified. You and your team will be briefed on a need to know basis."

"Details on your new team," he continued, "are being delivered to your hotel room. They will arrive at the Buy More tomorrow. I suggest you read over their field history - they're going to be depending on you."

Graham's voice became a little more personable. "I understand you want to know more about your mission, but you will need to operate at this level for the time being."

"I understand sir." Charlene tried not to sound disappointed.

"Good," Graham concluded, ending the call.

---------------

Charlene turned on her lamp and took a sip of coffee.

She opened the first personnel folder. The rookie agent had just graduated, and had no listed field experience. For this mission, his cover name would be 'Fernando'.

Charlene looked at his picture. She flipped back to the first page to verify 'Fernando' was indeed male.

'Fernando' was probably going to be a handful. His scores at the academy were alarmingly bad. The only way he could've graduated with scores like that was through influential connections.

"Great," she said out loud. She reached for the other folder to see if it held any more promise.

The next agent appeared no less visibly inconspicuous. His large curly hair was styled more in step with the 1980's.

At least Agent Johnson had some field experience, she thought.

Unlike Charlene, Michael had willingly joined the CIA. From there he had followed a similar path to hers. He spent most of his time performing duties as a technical specialist within the CIA. His proficiency to his trade and his personality had earned him the respect and recommendation from his superiors.

Michael's specialties were in electronic security, surveillance, and audio/video systems. A skillset like that could come in very useful as an agent. His academy scores were significantly better than Fernando's. He had rapidly progressed through his courses, only to struggle with the deception and seduction portions.

She chuckled. Hopefully there wouldn't be any need for anyone to do any seducing at the Buy More.

Charlene took another sip of coffee and set the folders aside.

"Reinforcements..." she said to herself trying to sound positive.


	6. Sept 21 2007, Friday

Friday, 21st

------------

"Alright everyone... There's a new IT advisory from Nerd Herd central," Chuck announced.

The Nerd Herders on staff this morning gathered around the help desk.

Chuck flipped passed the cover sheet.

"It says we have a new virus coming out today. Looks like they're expecting it'll bring in moderate volume. It's the..."

Chuck stopped reading and started laughing to himself.

Lester wanted in on the joke. "What? What is it?"

Chuck forced himself to try and read his way through, "It says it's 'The Worlds Most Interesting Bomb', by a 'Kurt Hectic'."

Anna's authoritative voice cut through their mild laughter. "It's nothing," she said from her seat on the help desk counter. "Kurt's all show, he's got no real skills on his own. Max you have to watch out for."

Everyone watched Anna intently.

Chuck was the first to speak up. "How - how do you ....?"

"Don't ask," she interjected.

The awkward pause that followed suggested everyone was listening to her advice.

"Okayyyyyy, well, uh, since we're not going to be getting much in today, and since it looks like no one's got any assignments, we should be pretty good."

An ominous voice corrected him. "Not so fast Chuck! I have a FRESH assignment."

Chuck turned to the voice addressing him. "Harry, you don't work for the Nerd Herd."

"No, but I work for the greater good of the Buy More." Harry Tang glared at the group as a whole. "I don't expect that anyone here understands that now, do they?"

He ceremoniously placed the Nerd Herd request form on the desk in front of them.

Addressing them in his threatening tone he said, "Maybe you would all understand that if you had a taste of Tang every morning."

Harry left in silence. Even the usually quick witted Anna had been left without a comeback.

She hopped down from the help desk, and walked away to go search for her missing wit.

Lester picked up the order and skimmed it. "Noooooo!" he yelled painfully.

This time it was Chuck's turn to ask, "What is it?"

"Dragon Martial Arts -- revisit."

Jeff visibly mirrored Lester's pain.

"C'mon guys," Chuck said reading the request form, "it's just a wireless install and setup. How hard could it be? Besides, it isn't like this is the first time you've been called back on an install."

"Wait, you guys aren't nervous are you?"

Lester spoke up to defend himself. "Surely you can't be serious... it's just that... they have wave after wave of the same problems!"

Jeff raised his hand. "I've been nervous lots of times."

Lester turned back to his coworker. "You know what it's like. I'm not going back there by myself."

Jeff thought about it for a moment before his eyes lit up. "Okay, but only if I get to be Jimmy this time."

"No way Jeffery, we decided it last time - you are most definitely Bimmy. I am meant to be Jimmy."

The glow from Jeff's eyes faded. "Okay, fine. I'm in."

As they reluctantly turned away from the help desk, Chuck chimed in with one last jab at the duo.

"Just wanna wish you both good luck, we're all counting on you!"

Chuck sat down, leaned back in his chair, and stretched his arms.

"Well... I guess that takes care of everything then," he said to himself.

If what Anna knew was right, today would be slow after all.

With the business of work-related activities safely out the way, Morgan suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

He pulled up a chair next to Chuck at the Nerd Herd desk.

"Hey Chuck, how's it goin?"

"Too early to know so far buddy, just have to see how it goes."

"Okay."

"Yep."

The quietness that followed was as spiritually deep as the level of discussion from before.

Chuck finally disrupted the silence.

"Hey, Morgan, you ever think about having a plan?"

"Of course I do," Morgan replied without needing to think about it, "I like to call it my 'mission strategy'."

Chuck rolled his eyes. "I'm talking about real life here."

"Man, life on the battlefield is as real as it gets!"

Morgan waited to see if he would get the reaction out of Chuck he had hoped for.

He didn't. "Okay, what's all this stuff about a plan? Talk to uncle Morgan, what's up?"

"It's just the last couple of days..."

Chuck was having trouble putting his thoughts into words that he thought his friend would follow. He cut straight to the heart of the matter.

"Ellie thinks I'm letting my life go nowhere. That it's because I don't have a plan... and that I'm just sitting here at the Buy More stuck in neutral."

The more that Chuck got his words out, the faster he spoke.

"And she even gave me a book on how to write a five year plan."

Morgan watched as Chuck hesitated mid-panic. "Wow dude. Really wow. That's crazy. You told her she's wrong right?"

"Yeah, kinda. I mean there are plenty of people out there that are successful and who don't need five year plans."

Morgan replied by nodding and shrugging at the same time. He wasn't sure if Chuck was paying attention to his reaction anyway.

Chuck sighed before he continued thinking out loud. "You know, I used to have a plan... I was gonna graduate... become a successful software entrepreneur... be with Jill... and now..." His voice changed from defeated to disappointed. "Now I'm here... at the Buy More."

Morgan's ears perked up when he heard 'Jill'. He thought it would be better for Chuck if he changed the topic to something that didn't include talking about Jill.

"Don't worry dude, you don't need a five year plan."

"That's what I think, " Chuck said trying to convince himself. "I mean, A LOT can happen in five years. How can you plan that far ahead anyway? I never would have thought back then that my best friend at Stanford would've stabbed me in the back, ruined my future, and slept with my girlfriend."

"I know what you mean Chuck - but look at me! I don't let it get to me."

Chuck looked at Morgan in disbelief, failing to hide his doubtful tone. "Oh you know, do you?"

"Sure I do," Morgan said trying to sound offended, "I NEVER thought I'd grow up in a future where Han shot second!"

"But I made peace with it see?" Morgan smiled broadly for extra effect.

"Uh huh. This is helpful." Chuck began staring at the ceiling.

"C'mon Chuck, your life didn't turn out so bad. Let's just look at the pluses okay?"

Morgan started counting on his fingers. "One, we get to work together every day."

"Two, you don't have some kind of job that's all stressful that you end up dreading."

"Three, being at the Buy More we don't have any obligations so we get to do whatever we want."

"Four, we have plenty of free time after work to enjoy the finer games in life."

"And five," Morgan said holding his arms out widely, "we have access to all of this! Yeah?!?"

Chuck sighed while thinking about what his best friend was suggesting. Morgan did have a talent of finding the positive points in a situation.

"I guess so, buddy. Thanks." he said smiling weakly.

"No problem, that's what friends are for right?"

"Right."

"Now, if you'll excuse me I have some work to get done."

"Wait Morgan, what did you just say? It kind of sounded like you said 'work to get done'."

"Yeah, you know, work - like the daily minimum."

Chuck found it amusing that there was even a daily minimum.

"Big Mike wants me to put some tape down in front of a display."

Chuck remained speechless, but now visibly confused.

"Dude, I don't know, some weird promo thing."

"Okay Morgan, but don't turn all 'employee of the month' on me alright?"

"Roger that..."

Chuck leaned back in his chair again and resumed staring at the ceiling.

"Morgan's right", Chuck thought.

He could have it much worse. There were definitely those who would love to have the kind of freedoms that he took for granted daily.

Not everyone is lucky enough to get to go to work with people that you actually enjoy working with. Not everyone got the chance while at work to have fun joking around with their best friend regularly.

It wasn't like he had to worry about making any super-serious decisions - at least not the kind of decisions that affected the rest of people's lives or the fate of mankind.

And in sort of a way, he and Morgan did actually get paid playing video games while on duty.

It was also hard for Chuck to deny the appeal of the home theater room setup - or the steady stream of early-access to the next hottest tech products.

The kind of wonderful life he had at the Buy More was the kind that would be almost impossible to assign a proper value to. Not everything could be bought off the shelf for a price.

Chuck felt a responsibility pang that brought his eyes back to his present situation.

The phone he was babysitting showed that no one had called in yet.

He checked the Nerd Herd support system - nothing there either.

Anna being right about the virus was both a good thing and a bad thing.

On the good side, people weren't down and suffering. On the bad side, he had nothing to do and was suffering.

Were stretches of dead time like this doing nothing really supposed to be his ultimate fate? Ellie had tried to gently tell him that this would be the kind of thing he would have to expect as long as he remained at the Buy More.

Chuck felt Charles Carmichael look at him with disappointment. Chuck was pretty sure Charles would never sit around like this.

Instead, Charles was probably on his way to buy yet another sports car, or jet-set off to some exotic location around the world he had never been, or just to do his usual 'something' that was otherwise revolutionary.

It always felt good to daydream about being in Charles Carmichael's shoes. Chuck felt Charles Carmichael had it all.

It was hard to imagine that he and Chuck at some point had the same history.

"Things could've been so different. But now, it's just Chuck Bartowski sitting at the Buy More." he thought.

What could he really do now at this point? What options were really left? All of the chances he had, all of the opportunities he had, and all of the perfect timing he had back then were all long gone.

It wasn't like he could somehow find and convince Jill that he wasn't the liar that she thought he was.

On top of that, she had made it quite clear that she was leaving him. There had been no ambiguity in that...

Chuck sighed.

With the kind of money he made here at the Buy More there wasn't nearly enough for him to try and start his own software business. And from what he saw around the Buy More, no one was qualified enough to share his dream.

That meant he'd have to get a real job somewhere else, which he also couldn't do since he didn't have his degree from Stanford.

"It's like I'm stuck," he nearly said with frustration.

Chuck admitted to himself that Ellie's words bothered him they way they did because deep down he knew she was somewhat right.

He shook his head thinking about her insistence on Chuck's five year plan.

The best he could come up with was a three year plan:

'Year One: Find a way to go back in time and completely change my life'

'Year Two: ?'

'Year Three: Profit!'

He considered the possibility of finding success though publishing his own life planning book.

He shouldn't have to be left sitting here thinking like this about five year plans, or what had gone wrong in his life. His life could have been perfect.

What had he done to Bryce to justify what he did to him? Bryce knew that Chuck had only been able to attend Stanford because of his academic scholarship. It was a scholarship he had worked hard through high school to earn.

If Bryce hadn't ruined his life, that scholarship would've carried him through graduation. He would have had the career in software that he always wanted.

At the very least he would've had his own car, his own place, and the former friends that lost faith in him for cheating.

He would still have Jill.

It was amazing how different things were without her.

When he started at Stanford, he had been a bit disorganized his first couple of years. He was almost obsessed with his dream of making his own software games. He struggled to balance that dream with his coursework.

The more time he spent with Jill though, the better things got. He felt like he had more focus.

Eventually his grades even improved to the point where he regularly ranked towards the top of his class' scores.

Afterwards, it became clear just how much she had changed his life. He felt it was hard for him to function like he once had.

He wanted to be mad at her. After all, she did stab him in the back too.

Chuck knew he couldn't hate her like that.

He hoped she wasn't still together with Bryce - he hoped instead she was out there thinking of him.

If anything, he truly hoped she wouldn't see him sitting here at the Nerd Herd desk. There had already been way too many disappointed looks from those who obviously thought he had become a failure.

He sighed loudly.

After leaving Stanford, Chuck had given a name to his pain - and it was Bryce Larkin.

Chuck might have struggled coming up with just the right words to say if he ever met Jill again, but he had plenty to say to Bryce.

When he felt this way, he wanted to yell. He wanted to get everything off of his chest at the top of his lungs for once and for all, and hear how Bryce had to answer for himself.

"BARTOWSKI!" Chuck nearly fell out of his seat.

He got up and quickly walked over to the source of the audible anger.

"Yes Big Mike?"

"What does this look like to you Bartowski?" he said pointing.

Chuck looked down at the floor. "Uh, it looks like an S..."

He tilted his head. A familiar shape appeared to him. "...and a more different S." Chuck smiled.

Big Mike wasn't smiling back. "It's supposed to be a path to Buy More savings!"

"Sorry..." Chuck said awkwardly pointing at Morgan's art. "It just looks kinda like the beginning shape of the 'Burninator'."

"I don't care what it is - tell Morgan I'm gonna 'burninate' his ass if he doesn't get back here and fix this."

Chuck furrowed his brow. Why did he think Big Mike would get that? One of his coworkers probably, but not his boss.

Unlike one of his coworkers, Big Mike was expecting a response from him.

"Right," Chuck said apologetically, "I'll just find Morgan."

He stuck his head up and started looking around. "Where is Morgan?"

---------------

Morgan looked deeply into her eyes.

"Anna", he said with a serious tone.

"You know that this thing here means more to me than anything."

He paused before continuing to bare his soul.

"I need you."

"I can't go on knowing that you're not there."

"Fine Morgan!" Anna said visibly annoyed. "Take the sniper rifle, I'll cover you."

"Thanks! You're the best." He picked up his controller and slid his headset mic back down into position.

"Alright, listen up everybody! We are going in there and we're gonna win this one. Those LargeMart fiends may think they're giants in their own little world, but we are taking that world away from them! Are we ready?!? Let's do this!"

Anna watched as Morgan delivered his usual "inspirational" battle monologue. She picked up her controller.

"Morgan," she began with a menacing smile, "I don't want the world, I just want YOUR half."

The look of horror on his face made her smile even more.

----------------

Bryce didn't like how he felt right now.

Being concerned like this and having the slightest hint of worry spoke volumes about his ability to be a spy.

For his own sake, as well as for the mission's, he did his best not to show it.

Nevertheless, he had spent far too many days since Sunday trying to uncover some element of Fulcrum's plot.

It frustrated him greatly how unsuccessful he had been.

Each day that Bryce wasted was another day that Chuck's odds were increasing to become included in the mission.

He still felt reluctant involving Chuck.

They hadn't parted on the best of terms, and he was unsure how Chuck would suddenly react to seeing him out of the blue.

Bryce needed to make sure that whatever he may need to send him, that it wouldn't get immediately deleted. He also knew if Fulcrum intercepted his message, they couldn't know that it contained the information that they were after.

For reasons like these he had turned to a friend within the CIA technical operations group.

David Lightman was someone he felt he could trust, but not quite enough to include him on his mission. David had grown up around telecommunications and after becoming involved with the government, had gone on to stand out as a security and encryptions expert.

After the usual smalltalk, Bryce had gotten down to business.

"Hey, I need a favor. I've got a little project I need your help with."

David loved working on quirky projects. It was this trait Bryce knew he could count on. David's face had perked up at his suggestion.

"My anniversary's coming up with my girlfriend and I thought I'd do something fun and different."

David looked a little puzzled at how he might be involved in this. "Go on..."

"I want to tell her what she means to me, but I'm still working on it you know. I'm thinking maybe something written, some old photos from when we first became partners, some music playing, or something - I haven't decided yet."

"Would it be possible to have something I can work on from my PDA - so that when I do finish, I can send it to her all wrapped up in a bundle?"

David visibly lost a bit of his energy. "Well, yeah... any email program can pretty much do that."

Bryce stepped up his enthusiasm.

"No. Not just an attachment. I want to be able to send it out, and watch the look on her face as she gets it! So I need to send a lot of data really fast."

He began to gesture with his hands to make it look like he was thinking out loud. "Ooh! It would be great if I could make it personalized too. So that when she gets the email and opens the attachment that something comes up on her screen. It would be some kind of inside joke or something that only we would get, so when she types in what she used to say to me, she gets all the stuff I sent her!"

"Yeah, I see where you're going..." David was back in the game. "A data pinata... That's cool! You know how you want it to look yet?" he asked smiling.

"Maybe she could type it in like from one of those old text-based games. I've got some things in mind, but nothing final. I'll decide for sure what to use when I narrow down the rest of what I'll send her."

David was on the edge of his seat. "Alright! The old 'shall we play a game' seduction... Nice choice! Uh, what else?"

Bryce was in the home stretch. "You know, I'd love for it to get to her inbox without getting filtered out to her junkmail. I've had pretty good luck with the CIA transfer system. Any chance we could borrow the encryption from that?"

"Sure! Sure! Easy!"

"Thanks. When could I come by and pick it up?"

"I'll have it done later tonight. Is that soon enough?"

Bryce smiled at him reassuringly. "David, that's perfect."

"Bryce?" David asked with a suddenly serious tone in his voice.

Bryce's defensive instinct went on alert.

"You mind if I use something like this for my new girlfriend too?"

Bryce relaxed. "Hey David, go for it."

It was now 23:45 and Bryce waited for the elevator. The halls and offices were empty and silent.

He looked down at his PDA. David had had done a good job. He made everything easy to use and fully last-minute customizable.

He hoped it would be enough.

"Bryce!"

He wheeled quickly around to the voice behind him.

"I thought we understood that we are working together as a team."

Bryce looked around. He and Tommy were the only two present.

Tommy continued, "Cowen... Cowen is a scout for talent."

"We have already found you and your... talent."

"I almost feel disappointed Bryce that I didn't make myself clear the first time."

"Here," said Tommy as he handed him a folder, "it looks like our team has some new competition."

The elevator doors opened. Tommy stepped in and pressed a button for another floor.

"Don't worry Bryce, I'll see you soon enough."

This is getting worse, Bryce thought. He had hoped to be several steps ahead of agents like Tommy, and now they were getting even further ahead of him.

He opened up the folder. Inside were several NSA documents about their plans to improve security around several sensitive locations.

The operation was being led by a Major John Casey. Included were photos and a mission history from Major Casey's personnel file.

This must be the 'new competition' Tommy had been referring to.

Bryce closed the folder.

He would have to watch his back now from two teams on this mission - and that would mean learning as much as he could about Major Casey.


	7. Sept 22 2007, Saturday

Saturday, 22nd

--------------

Bryce battled his lack of sleep.

He had been up all night pouring over every detail from the folder that Tommy had given him.

It was the biggest and newest lead he had, and he was determined to make something out of it.

The contents of the folder hadn't said much directly. Inside, it contained mostly photos and names.

Bryce guessed that Tommy might be using this as a test to see how resourceful of an agent he was.

He didn't like the feeling of being a pawn playing in someone else's game, but he had no choice.

He would need to pass whatever tests they put in front of him in order to infiltrate Fulcrum.

Graham had given him an elevated security clearance to provide additional context. Now he was using the agency's information to aid him in any way possible.

The records on Major John Casey didn't generate any strong leads at first. His background was impressive, and only served to undervalue Tommy's description of Casey being competition.

The most recent records indicated that Casey had been pulled from his previous mission and was now currently assigned to a new mission as the head of security.

Bryce felt frustratingly constrained by the lack of further details he had available. One bit of useful information stood out to him.

Major Casey had been spotted around a number of key government installations.

Bryce slowly reviewed the list.

He compared those installations to the locations that housed systems that Graham said might interface with the attachment that Tommy had provided.

Bryce had a match.

The government site was the home of a CIA/NSA joint project called the 'Intersect'.

As Bryce began reading over the project's objectives, he felt the first bit of relief he had that week.

The 'Intersect' project was a computer system that contained valuable secrets that a rogue group, such as Fulcrum, would likely go to great lengths to get their hands on.

It contained intelligence data that had been collected and processed not only by the CIA, but from the NSA as well. This was the kind of priceless data that any number of groups or countries would pay handsomely to obtain.

"Great!" he said to himself while taking a moment of pride in his progress, "I just hope Chuck's got enough room on his backup drive."

Chuck's habitual data backup was a trait that Bryce was greatly counting on. He would need to find out just how much data he might be sending him.

He continued reading about the Intersect project. His optimism took a nosedive.

The project had progressed to the level where field agents could be 'preloaded' with intelligence information from the Intersect database. It utilized a visual process of rapidly showing an agent a series of images specially encoded with subliminal data.

"Chuck..." Bryce said shaking his head.

He paused in reflection. "It's the past inside the present."

Omaha or Intersect, it seemed either the government or fate was going to control the destiny of his former friend.

He thought about the effect this revelation had on his mission. He took a deep breath and let it out.

If Chuck was going to eventually become involved, it should end up being on terms Bryce himself could control and define.

The thought of what he might have to do to Chuck made him feel more like a 'Bryce Lynch' than Bryce Larkin.

The spy came to another realization.

To meet the mission objectives, the Intersect data might actually be better hidden from Fulcrum by being locked away in Chuck's brain.

---------------

Bryce stood and briefed his boss on his findings. Director Graham became visibly anxious.

"Everything we've got is in that database." he said.

"I want you to find out why Fulcrum wants the information. Find out who they might sell it to, or how they might use it themselves."

"Yes sir. Tommy isn't going to let me know anything beyond what it will take to get the mission completed."

"That leaves my initial Fulcrum contact - Phillip Cowen. He's going to be our best bet. I can use him to establish more contacts within Fulcrum."

"There's a problem with Cowen," Graham jumped in. "Cowen was found on the top level of a parking garage yesterday by local police."

"Shot by a sniper round." Graham shook his head, "Not one of ours."

Bryce stood visibly concerned. His most promising lead into the rogue agency was gone.

Shortly into operation Sand Wall, Bryce had received a postcard attempting to convince tourists to spend their vacations at 'Shell Beach'.

On the other side, a handwritten note simply said "I hope you know the way here Bryce, it will be worth your time - Your new friend".

Bryce had puzzled over the postcard for a few days before showing up at 'John Murdoch' city park.

Among the people there, a man wearing a grey suit sat on a bench doing a crossword.

Bryce walked up to his possible new friend.

"Dark, don't you think?" Bryce asked showing him the postcard of Shell Beach.

The man with a slightly impatient demeanor looked up.

"Mr. Larkin, glad you could make it. We would have been let down if you wouldn't have shown up. But then again, the reason why you're here is the reason why we contacted you in the first place. Please... sit", he said gesturing next to him.

Bryce remained standing.

"There's no need to worry, I'm certainly not some mysterious Dr. Schreber."

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mr. Cowen, but since we're going to be good friends you can just call me Phillip."

"The organization that I work for has a need for someone with your qualifications - qualifications that have been brought to our attention through your work in the CIA and Sand Wall. Your quick thinking, your athletic skills, and your reputation for doing what it takes to get the job done are just the very talents that my organization needs for someone to complete an important task."

"We would like to invite you to work with our organization - not just for this task, but for longer term goals."

"What is this 'organization'?" Bryce finally replied.

"Not to worry Bryce," Phillip emphasized, "our organization isn't just another three letter acronym group. You'll continue to be a dedicated employee of the CIA."

"We just want to extend certain overriding principles and objectives. For lack of a better name, you can refer to our organization as 'Fulcrum'.

Bryce kept it direct and simple. "So what does Fulcrum want with me?"

"I don't think you understand how this works, so let me explain my role."

"I'm like a scout. I see who's out there, and then make introductions."

"If you like what you hear and say yes, then I put someone in touch with you."

Bryce gave him a dry look. "And if I don't like what I hear?"

Cowen smiled at him. "Well Mr. Larkin, let's just say my organization isn't well adjusted to hearing no."

If Fulcrum was willing to silence one of their own, Bryce knew that Chuck would be at a much greater risk than he had originally anticipated.

"We need to get Sarah involved." he said.

Graham shook his head. "No. Your first instinct to have her benched for the duration was the right one."

"Knowledge of the mission has to be kept to a minimum due to the sensitivity of the situation."

"Sir," Bryce protested, "Wherever the Intersect intel goes, Fulcrum will go. If I can't get it out of their hands in time, I will need to fall back to involving the civilian. Chuck will need protection from Fulcrum agents, and Sarah is the most qualified person I trust."

"I understand your concern," Graham responded, "but including a civilian is part of your worst-case scenario. We can't just begin involving agents like this. It could attract attention to us, or to your 'trusted civilian'. Walker is to remain in the dark."

If Fulcrum got to Chuck, Bryce's most important mission to date would be a failure. He couldn't let that happen.

"What if I could get her there, within range of Chuck - without her knowing about the mission or the Intersect?"

"We wouldn't have to brief her unless it becomes absolutely necessary."

Graham secretly liked what he heard. Adding another level of security to a mission this risky wouldn't be a bad thing, and with the other side raising the stakes it was almost a necessity.

"Okay. Get Walker on location without her awareness of the mission. I'll get her cleared ahead of schedule with Dr. Beckett and reinstated for active duty."

---------------

Sarah sat in front of her blank terminal.

The mission she had been scheduled to oversee had been called off at the last minute.

Now she was wrapping up her shift in silence - something far more dangerous than many of her missions.

Maybe it was the time 'off the job' that was getting to her, or maybe it was something that she had already noticed, but ever since the incident, Bryce had been distant at best.

Sarah had tried her best to come up with explanations that made sense. Unfortunately, she had only been able to come up with one: Bryce had already given up on her and their relationship.

Sarah knew she needed to prepare for the worst, but she had trouble convincing herself to acknowledge the possibility.

She desperately wished that she hadn't actually lost him.

She would give anything to have their relationship back to the way it had been during their trip to Cabo.

At that time, she and Bryce had been partners for just a few months short of a year.

While she didn't think too much of his personality at first, she had quickly grown fond of him. After a few missions working together, those feelings had progressed through admiration and directly to love.

She knew how being in love with a partner could make many things complicated. But they were both professionals, and she hadn't permitted any assignments to stand in their way.  
From her observations, Bryce felt the same way too.  
She had seen these observations proved correct when they had earned their time off together. The two of them spent that time enjoying the moments and acting care-free. It had been the best time of her life.

Everything had felt so new and wonderful.

Since then however, the two of them had spent nearly the remainder of their time on a continuous stream of missions. There had hardly been any downtime for her and Bryce to be a couple.

Thinking about the past like this often made her nostalgic. Sarah wondered if Cabo might have been everything she had thought it was.

"Yes," she thought to herself, "if I'm ever going to get over losing Bryce, this is the kind of thing I have to understand"  
For a moment she felt like Jenny. After all, Bryce wasn't a mark. He wasn't someone that she could just pretend to like and then leave.

She had real feelings for Bryce. This wasn't being easy at all.

Sarah sighed and grabbed her things. She had only a few days of this to go before she would have her full concentration back on a mission.

---------------

Sarah walked out of the control room and into the usually empty hallway.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone leaning against a wall.

Her surprise outran her self-control. "Bryce??? What are you doing here?"

Bryce continued to smile as he began to slowly walk towards her.

"Well, it's good to see you too Sarah... miss me?"

Sarah felt something - something strong. She just wasn't sure if it was more from shock or from an exhausting shift. Either way, she felt her body go on autopilot with her mind having to play the part of passenger.

Her face shot Bryce a dirty look, while she heard her voice pronounce a very honest "Uh, yeah - of course."

Sarah's reactions then switched places. "Where have you been?"

"You know, the physical therapy... the paperwork... getting checked out... usual stuff."

"I am here for a reason though." He smiled even more.

For a moment, Sarah's split reactions synchronized: "What is it?"

"I got you off of your probation duty early. As of today, you're a free girl."

This was becoming too much for her to process right now. "Why? Why would you do that?"

Bryce closed in on her and gently touched her arm.

"What, can't a boyfriend do something nice for his girlfriend? Besides..."

"You are worth it."

Something now made Sarah nearly freeze in place - she was completely speechless. She wasn't sure what to think.

Bryce waited for her response, but didn't get any at all.

"Your boyfriend," he continued hoping to snap Sarah out of her trance, "pulled some strings so that you could have time off and he could take you on a much needed vacation."

This time Bryce observed his words having some kind of positive effect. There was a sudden brightness in her eyes.

"Vacation?"

Bryce needed to make sure this went smoothly. He applied extra charm while making sure not to go overboard.

"Yes Sarah, a real vacation. It'll just be the two of us - no missions, no CIA objectives, no overseeing rookie agents."

"Wow," Sarah felt herself confessing aloud, "like Cabo."

Bryce tried not to let his hesitation become too noticeable. He had nearly forgotten Cabo. From what he could remember, Sarah had a good time there.

"Exactly - it's been too long since Cabo. It's been crazy since then, so I'm taking you away from all of this."

Sarah finally smiled. Bryce felt this conversation was going the way it needed to.

"Don't worry, Agent Walker. I'll make sure to get you back." he said grinning.

"I'm sorry Bryce, it's-" Sarah began to say.

"No apologies. I took care of all of the reservations and everything."

"Well... Bryce... this is great. When does our vacation begin?"

"I probably won't get out of here for another day or two, but I want you to fly out tomorrow and start enjoying your time off, okay?"

Sarah looked puzzled. "What am I supposed to do on my first day off?"

Bryce continued with his charm. "You're not going to be getting 'a case of the Mondays' now are you?"

The increasingly happier agent smiled back at him. "Careful, you just might get your ass kicked for saying something like that."

Bryce held his hands up in playful defense. "Okay okay... my mistake."

Her soft laughter was a good sign, he noted.

"Here," he said handing her tickets, "your vacation isn't going to wait forever - you'd better start packing."

Sarah gave him a quick kiss before leaving with a beaming smile.

"Cabo..." he thought as he watched her walk away.

Cabo had been part of the reward they had earned after their mission in Bogota.

They had proved the mission analysts wrong. Not only had they actually been able to recover the stolen documents, but they been able to do so far ahead of any projected timetable.

That mission had really put them on the map as CIA agents, and had earned them the kind of respect that landed them more sophisticated missions.

If he could complete this mission with Fulcrum and the Intersect, the success from Bogota would pale in comparison.


	8. Sept 23 2007, Sunday

**Updated:** Fixed the missing lines. They were showing up in the original text and the Document Manager, but not on the published page.

Thanks MySoapBox and jagged1!

* * *

Sunday, 23rd

------------

Graham stood in front of the Intersect supercomputer.

The technician had the replacement part ready.

The CIA director had a difficult choice to make.

Putting the Intersect back online would greatly increase the odds that Fulcrum may attempt to make their move. He and Bryce still needed more time.

He frowned slightly.

He knew he couldn't delay the project's repair. There were entire departments and lives that depended on this system being fully functional.

Delaying the inevitable could also tip off Fulcrum that his agency was aware of them.

"Bring the system back online," he told the repair technician.

---------------

"Hey man, want anything?"

"No Morgan, I think-" Chuck tapped the buttons on his controller rapidly, "I think I'm good."

"Well... I am going to recharge my batteries with a grape soda. You sure you don't want anything?"

Chuck kept his eyes on the screen. "Isn't it a little early for grape soda?"

"Chuck. Dude. You know you I gotta go with what works."

"More power to ya buddy."

"Last chance... anything while I'm up?"

Chuck didn't answer.

"Okay," Morgan could only attempt to support his best friend as much as he could.

As he walked down the hall to the kitchen, he noticed Ellie and Devon putting down boxes they had been carrying.

"Hey, what's going on in here?" Morgan asked innocently.

Ellie motioned for him to be quiet.

"What? Is something wrong?"

Devon leaned in towards Morgan, and tried to speak in what Morgan guessed was his most hushed voice.

"Ellie and I are gonna set up the decorations later while you and Chuck are at work."

Morgan blinked. "Wait, you know Chuck's birthday isn't until tomorrow right?"

"Yeah, but we've got a shift early tomorrow. So between that and the uh..." he winked at Morgan, "pre-party with the lady, there won't be enough time-"

Ellie jabbed him in the side.

Devon winced slightly. "What?"

"Agent Grimes, Morgan Grimes," Devon said smiling and quickly trying to change the subject, "Ellie and I need you for a mission, should you choose to accept it."

Ellie rolled her eyes and carried one of the boxes to her room.

He continued unfazed. "We need you to keep Chuck out of the apartment for as long as possible tonight so we can get everything set up, okay bro?"

The newly recruited agent grinned. "Who's gonna be Agent 99?"

Devon looked slightly puzzled. "I'm pretty sure Bond is 007 dude, but hey, you wanna be 99, go ahead."

"No, I mean- its from-..." Morgan sighed, "know what, never mind."

"Yeah, I'll try and keep Chuck out, okay?"

Devon held out his fist. "Alright Agent 99, lock it out."

Morgan simply shook his head. This was the kind of exchange that made him forget why he came into the kitchen in the first place.

---------------

"Major Casey, you have something to report?"

Casey stood proudly. "Yes ma'am."

"There's been some activity concerning our traitor in the CIA."

"It seems his partner, Agent Walker, was recently released from her probation duties a few days early."

"According to Larkin's credit card records, he bought her a series of flights leaving immediately out of DC."

He began reading down the list. "One to Seattle, one to Los Angeles, one to New York, one to San Diego, and one to San Antonio."

"They were all scheduled to leave at around the same time - he's trying to throw us off of his tracks."

"The TSA," Casey sighed angrily before recomposing himself, "The TSA is having trouble tracking the passengers on those flights."

"We know that her cell is turned off. Since she's likely to be on one of those flights, I've ordered teams to each of the airports to find and follow her - wherever she lands."

"Larkin is still here in DC."

Casey flipped to another of the pages he held.

"Larkin in the meanwhile, has been doing some homework. He's been very interested in one location in particular-"

"Let me see!" The way in which General Beckman interrupted him actually caught Casey off guard.

She recognized the site in question. One of the project reports she had received this morning indicated that the Intersect was scheduled to be brought back online today.

"Have you been able to ascertain what Agent Larkin was looking for at this location?"

"No ma'am," Casey replied before hesitating, "May I ask what Larkin might want with this site?"

"I'm sorry Major, but that information is classified."

"Understood." he said nodding.

"Good work Major Casey. I want you to focus your concentration on this location in particular until further notice. Maintain your other security teams' present locations."

"We may see Agent Larkin make his move at any time."

Casey smiled at what he heard. There would be action, and it would be soon.

--------------

Sarah put her luggage on the floor and began smiling.

As she looked around the hotel room, she thought that Bryce must really like the color green.

It might not be quite the style that she would choose herself, but it was something she could live with.

Styling issues aside, he had otherwise picked out a nice hotel room.

It was definitely more upscale than what Sarah was used to. Then again, she thought, most of her recent missions hadn't involved anything with a hint of luxury.

She laid back onto the soft bed and stretched. It felt good after her long flight. Sarah owed this bit of happiness to Bryce.

She began feeling guilty about how wrong she had been about him.

She had expected to hear the worst and get dumped. Instead he had done just the opposite.

He had apparently just given her a signal of how committed he was to their relationship.

After all, pulling strings like he had to get her out of her temporary assignment was no small task.

Sarah figured for Bryce to do that and get time just for the two of them to have a vacation, he must have called in several favors.

It made Sarah feel special.

She began speculating on Bryce's intentions.

The vivid imagination she retained from her youth caused her mind to wander across far too many possibilities.

She smiled to herself. Even though she still wanted to be able to know how Bryce felt about her, maybe it was good for him to still be a mystery from time to time.

"I'll just have to wait and see what other surprises he has for me."

Sarah got up and started unpacking her suitcase. She could already tell by her excitement that it was going to be difficult to wait.

Bryce had just done something for the two of them. Why hadn't she been able to see this coming?

Whatever was going on, one thing was clear - Bryce was being serious about their relationship.

The last time Sarah felt this sure about him was also the last time she thought she might have possibly lost him.

She and Bryce had been paired up with a DEA agent that sometimes went by the alias 'Carina'.

Sarah had worked with Carina before, and knew full well her reputation.

As much as she hadn't wanted to admit it, that day that Bryce and Carina spent together as part of the mission had gotten her worried - especially when they were late coming back to the rendezvous point.

Sarah had struggled while waiting to decide whether or not she should bring the question up with Bryce. Fortunately she hadn't needed to choose.

After their return, Carina appeared frustrated.

"What went wrong?" Sarah asked her.

Carina continued her visible grumpiness until Bryce left the two of them alone.

"Nothing went wrong with the op," she replied curtly.

"What went wrong then?" asked a concerned Sarah.

A nearly bewildered Carina continued where she left off, "Something went wrong with me. I don't get it. I even managed to get the NSA agent in Prague, but..."

Carina stared directly at Sarah. "Seriously, what do you have over him anyway?"

As Sarah watched her storm off, she found it hard not to let her relief turn into gloating. Bryce had chosen her over Carina.

Now, Bryce was choosing Sarah over spending time out on another mission.

In a way, it felt like they were reaching a turning point in their relationship.

She realized she needed to do something on her end as well. It was going to be hard for her to do, but if she wanted to take the next step - she would have to act like 'normal' people and trust Bryce.

After all, Sarah thought, he had earned it.

---------------

"You know we have a responsibility to finish what we started."

Morgan found it hard to be convincing like this without sounding like he was pleading.

"Responsibility???" Chuck asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, you know - for all the fans out there."

Chuck's disbelief changed to worry. "Uh, Morgan, what fans?"

"The last time I checked," Morgan smiled, "there were at least... mayyyyyybe, a dozen visitors."

Chuck rolled his eyes.

"C'mon man, I'm telling you, 'How To Make A Movie End A Lot Quicker' is gonna be a hit someday."

"Uh-huh," Chuck said trying not to dampen Morgan's enthusiasm. "Seriously, why do we need to do another one?"

Morgan became uncomfortable. "You know, the last one didn't turn out so well... The way we started arguing it was more like 'How To Make A Friendship End A Lot Quicker.'"

His energy level surged again, "But we can change that right!?! A new episode to show 'em all that we know what we're doing! What do you say?"

Chuck looked at his watch. They had 10 minutes left on their shift. "Okay, fine."

Morgan ran off and grabbed one of the video cameras from the display area. Working the camera, he began the live action footage.

"Okay, this is another episode of 'How To Make A Movie End A Lot Quicker'. Chuck Bartowski, you're up. Let's see... I'm gonna give you... 'Back To The Future 3'."

Chuck laughed. "What? Why such an easy one?"

"Well, you know, it's been a while, and we might be a little rusty. Gotta ease back in to it."

Chuck shrugged his shoulders. "Uh, okay. Hi! My name is Marty McFly and I'm stuck in the old west because my car just ran out of gas. Oh no Doc Brown what are we gonna do?"

He turned to face his other self. "Hey Marty, I got an idea. How about we take some of the gas from my DeLorean and get back home?"

Chuck transformed back into Marty. "Sounds great. Okay. Wow, looks like we're back to 1955."

He turned now towards the camera. "The end."

Morgan gave Chuck a high-five. "See dude, it's like riding a bike right?"

Chuck took the camera from him. "Okay Morgan Grimes... uh... 'The 13th Floor'."

Morgan blinked. "Dude, did anybody actually see that movie?"

"You know the rules - or do you want to forfeit again?"

"No sir," Morgan replied shaking his head, "not going there."

"Okay, 13th Floor: I'm just a real guy working on a computer simulation project. Or am I? Hey something-"

"Hang on," Chuck interrupted with surprise in his voice, "the tape says it's at the end. Didn't you just get this off of the display?"

"Yeah," Morgan replied while trying his best not to forget his abbreviated movie idea.

Chuck rewound the tape for several seconds.

He looked at the view screen and hit play.

"Well that explains it. Looks like Jeff and Lester got to it first." Chuck put the camera down.

Morgan sounded disappointed. "Whoa, Chuck, I thought we were gonna finish this."

"Morgan," he said chuckling, "we've got like a minute tops and we're outta here. Since when do you stay past your shift?"

"I have artistic principles."

"You- you have artistic principles. Okay Morgan, I'm leaving."

"No, we can't leave yet!"

Chuck turned back to face Morgan. "And why can't we leave yet?"

Morgan paused almost too long. "Alright, look, you didn't hear this from me. Ellie's prepping the apartment for your birthday party."

Chuck's eyes widened. "My birthday party?" he mumbled as he shook his head.

"Dude, you know she's just trying to help okay? You gotta show up to your own party..."

"So... what now?"

Morgan looked down. "I'm supposed to keep you here after our shift is over until they're done. But hey! How about we watch a real movie in the home theater room. It'll be great!"

Chuck realized he had no choice in the matter. His fate had already been chosen for him. "Fine, what are we watching?"

"Only the best movie of 1989 - with Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, and... the lovely Miss Basinger as Vicki Vale..."

"You want to watch Batman?" he replied.

"C'mon Chuck, tell me Prince's contribution wasn't the greatest one he ever did for a movie soundtrack."

"Okay," he said nodding in agreement. "But if I get that song stuck in my head, it's your fault."

Morgan smiled broadly. "Blame accepted."

---------------

"Morgan... I don't think Batman was intended to have a half-time break in the middle."

"Why not? With a break, you get to stand up, stretch, get more popcorn - it could be the evolution in movie watching."

Morgan was stalling for time, and stalling badly.

Chuck did stretch, but only as part of a yawn. He fell back into his seat, remaining silent.

This was the kind of behavior Morgan dreaded seeing. He never really knew exactly what it was that was bothering Chuck.

Nevertheless, he decided to give his usual method another try - talk about everything until he reacts.

"Wouldn't it be great to be Batman?"

Chuck looked over in disbelief.

"Think about it - he gets to live out a totally awesome rich-dude life, and then 'in the dark of night' he's the hero battling bad guys and saving the day!"

Chuck continued to sit silently.

"Hey, buddy, you with me?"

"Yeah Morgan, I'm with you. I guess it'd be kinda cool to be Batman."

"I'd rather be Carmichael first."

"Who?"

Chuck slowly shook his head, "Nobody you know."

"Well, I'm sticking to my Batman theory. He's got the right idea you know? Bruce Wayne gets all the normal hot chicks, and Batman gets all the hot freaky ones."

"Guess so..." Chuck replied still sounding tuned out.

"And... and, no one's going to ask Batman about any five year plans."

Chuck's eyes focused - Bingo!

"You know what Batman's plans are? Get cool new toys to play with and battle crime. Nice and simple right?"

Chuck began to come out of his trance.

"Nobody asks him," Morgan continued in his inspirational tone, "who he's going to save, and who he's going to dump into a vat of chemicals - no sir! He just does it."

Sometimes Morgan's speeches had the side-effect of inspiring himself. He smiled broadly.

"Yeah, you've got a point. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad."

Chuck yawned again. "Hey buddy, it's kinda late - you mind if we pick this up again some other time?"

Morgan looked at his watch. "Hey, sure, yeah, no problem."

Hopefully he had bought Ellie and Devon enough time.

---------------

A familiar voice startled him.

"Bryce. I've missed you. How about we spend more time together?"

The lights turned on.

Tommy and a group of men stood ready.


	9. Sept 26 2007, Wed to Sept 27 2007, Thurs

This wraps up my prequel story into the end of the real pilot episode.

Thanks to jagged1, MySoapBox, Kryptonian250, and tshdow for the review comments. I had fun doing this, hope it was fun to read.

PS: I've included the list of TV/movie/music/video game references I've worked in through the story at the bottom of this episode.

* * *

Wednesday 26th

--------------

"Cik ir pulkstens?" Charlene mumbled while groggily fumbling around in the dark for her phone.

The time at the top of its screen read 23:42.

The phone number that appeared below indicated that Director Graham was attempting to reach her.

"Yes sir?" she asked trying to sound as alert as possible.

"There's been a change in plans. Assemble your team for a briefing."

Less than 20 minutes later she was dressed and the other two agents were sitting in her room.

She returned the call and put Graham on speakerphone.

"Your team's mission is being expanded," he said.

"There is a protected government asset located at your Buy More - an employee by the name of Chuck Bartowski."

"Recently an elevated threat to Bartowski has been brought to our attention. Since this asset is now under additional risk, we are stepping up our protection for as long as necessary until that threat is resolved."

"Due to the importance of this situation to both the CIA and the NSA, each agency has agreed to assign an upper-level field agent to provide primary protection detail. We will be assigning Agent Walker, while they will be assigning Major Casey."

"Because of your team's overall limited experience, you will act as a secondary background team. This will require you to continue to remain off of everyone's radar - including Bartowski, Walker, and Casey."

The last detail made Charlene blink in surprise. "Sir, even from Agents Walker and Casey?"

"Yes. We can't have anyone infiltrating the operating zone and seeing the two teams coordinating together. If an enemy agent involved with any of Walker's or Casey's past missions were to discover the group, it would be a disaster to the mission. Consider this a firewall between teams."

Charlene felt her excitement sink along with her chances to work with more experienced agents. "Yes sir. Will we be sharing our mission briefings?"

"No. All intel will be routed through me or General Beckman from the NSA. Your operation 'Plan B' will know whatever the primary team knows. Anything you discover will be routed back through us to them."

"Additional resources and information will arrive tomorrow morning."

Charlene answered for the group. "Understood sir."

Michael and Fernando left without feeling the need to discuss anything they had just heard.

Charlene knew better from experience - not all surprises were good - and this was quite the surprise.

She wasn't surprised that Chuck might be the civilian that might be involved in the information transfer. What she hadn't expected was that he was an important asset to both the CIA and the NSA.

Charlene would need to pay closer attention to understand what she might need to protect him against.

---------------

Casey had managed to calm himself down, at least a little.

"How dare that twirp think he could just walk away? He's property of the NSA."

He stood in front of his new apartment and glanced around the courtyard. His apartment would have a good view of the target area, while the design of the courtyard reduced the amount of potential pedestrian access.

"Not bad," he grunted as he walked in.

Putting his bag down, he stared through the window at the Bartowski residence.

If he had just been able to accomplish his mission objectives and stop Bryce Larkin in the first place, none of this would have happened. Now some loser was walking around with government secrets in his head.

The near catastrophe hovered over Casey's thoughts.

As the NSA 'movers' arrived with Casey's requested equipment, he refocused on his new objectives.

He would need to place this 'Chuck Bartowski' under constant surveillance. Casey desperately hoped this wouldn't be as bad as what he had to listen to on his last mission.

He allowed himself to smile mischievously. At least if portions of the mission became unbearable, he might be able to take it out on this nerdy 'asset'.

He grabbed his bag and began unpacking the few items that were inside.

Casey ceremoniously placed his first photo of President Reagan on the stand next to the chair he designated as his listening post.

He stood proudly and saluted to the picture. "I promise to uphold the safety of this country's sensitive information and secrets - no matter where they are currently located."

Casey felt the pride empower him - at least until he opened the next box the 'movers' had delivered.

"Ugh." He couldn't help but find the Buy More uniform absolutely appalling.

Thursday 27th

-------------

Sarah's mind was still spinning - there was a lot to process. It was only a couple of hours into Thursday, and she hadn't been able to make much progress.

"How could you Bryce?" she wished she could ask him, "It's me. How could you do this to me?"

The silvery color of her hotel room felt particularly cold to her as she sat down on the bed.

It didn't make any sense. The two of them had worked side by side for long enough.

You were supposed to be able to trust your partner, and she had trusted Bryce.

It was that mutual trust that allowed them to depend and count on each other on dangerous and difficult missions. That trust meant they never abandoned one another.

Beyond that, Bryce was her boyfriend. She had believed in him - she believed in the two of them together.

Sarah felt her mistake become clearer. She had put herself out there for Bryce - something normal people did.

Her father wouldn't be proud of her right now. She had allowed herself to begin to trust Bryce completely, and in doing so had become easily misled.

Each wave of realization stung increasingly more.

Sarah wondered if her 'date' was handling his new situation any better. She couldn't imagine what he must be feeling right now.

He hadn't looked like he handled the shock at discovering his former classmate was a spy for the CIA well at all.

Learning that this same classmate had just put his life at risk with government secrets couldn't have made things any better. For his sake, she hoped he hadn't understood the full threat he faced. At least not yet.

Chuck had seemed so happy on their date.

"Poor guy" she said to herself. Had he known that it was her that had broken in and assaulted him and his best friend, he would have been even more afraid to accept her invitation.

Sarah came close to a light smile recalling his initial nervousness.

During the date, she had been able to profile him. His innocent nature and honest charm were quickly apparent.

She knew by the time they left the restaurant that he wasn't a spy, or otherwise intentionally involved with Bryce's plan.

In fact, if not for the secrets now stored in his head, she felt she could have ensured his safe return to his normal life.

Unfortunately, the NSA and Major Casey would never take any of this into consideration. They would consider him a threat to probably just about everything.

It would be up to her to protect Chuck from them as well as from the 'bad guys'.

Sarah got up off of the bed and walked towards the refrigerator.

First things first, she thought - for a regular computer geek, she felt Chuck might have seen her with an almost alarming clarity.

She grabbed a chocolate pudding, hoping it would begin comforting her.

She had been trained to withstand torture and interrogation, but somehow his plain questions kept hitting their targets.

Looking back, she couldn't believe how nearly open she had been.

Sarah shook her head in disbelief. 'Bruce?' 'I may come with baggage?'

She looked down at her snack-size container. "They never give me enough pudding do they?" she asked it.

As she went back for seconds, she dwelled for a moment on her poor performance as a spy.

Chuck had asked her what kind of music she listened to - a simple question that any normal person should be able to answer.

It was a simple question that Sarah with her cover had noticeably stumbled over.

In that moment, she felt it was Jenny that was there on the date - a date with someone who was honestly interested in her.

Jenny however, was not a spy out on a mission.

As she finished off her second pudding, she realized that she had let herself become soft.

In between her time at the CIA among other agents, and the safe environment of the probation work, Sarah had gotten used to the idea that no one ever asked her how she felt or who she was.

She had gotten so used to these conditions that she had let her guard down.

Agent Walker felt her training kick back in. She would focus on her mission, and for the success of the mission and for the safety of everyone involved, she would have to protect herself against this level of transparency.

After all, there would be many new unknowns to deal with and she wouldn't be sure who she could trust.

Director Graham had made one thing clear - Sarah would need to do whatever necessary to get Chuck to trust her.

---------------

Chuck sat in his room with the lights off.

Despite the fact that it must have been early into the next day, he hadn't felt the least bit drowsy.

The black car that had followed him home hadn't made him feel any better about what was happening to him.

Chuck felt he had simply run out of ways to panic.

"Let's see" he thought to himself as he began a list of his recent misfortunes.

First, he was now 'seeing' things and somehow just 'knowing' things he never should be able to, and it really hadn't been his imagination.

The General really had landed earlier than they had announced, and he really had been justified in freaking out at the LargeMart.

What if the Serbian bomb guy had come after him? Chuck and Morgan together had been able to scare off the ninja, but that bomber guy was a scary dude.

"By the way," Chuck pondered, "why was there a ninja in the apartment? And why was he trying to rob me?"

"My computer..." he lamented, "I should've kept a backup of my stuff." Now he would have to start saving up to buy a new system. Then he'd have to start the long process of rebuilding everything all over from whatever old copies of stuff he could find.

Chuck felt his stomach ache. He had taken the company Nerd Herder out on personal time and it was now completely trashed. He and Sarah had just left it there on the road.

What was he going to say to Big Mike? At his pay rate, Chuck would be repaying the Buy More forever.

Chuck took a deep breath and sighed.

"Bryce," he said with scorn. As if Chuck didn't have enough reasons to hate the guy, now Bryce had dumped more reasons on top of him.

It was times like these that he truly felt that Bryce had something against him. He could almost picture Bryce somehow enjoying ruining Chuck's life.

To make matters worse, Bryce was apparently a spy for the CIA.

Weren't spies for the CIA supposed to be the good guys? Good guys aren't supposed to do things like this to normal people like him.

Chuck would have loved to find out what Bryce was thinking. Unfortunately since Bryce was now dead, he would never find the answers to his new questions. There would also never be the answers for what he had done to him back at Stanford either. He had waited too long to ask Bryce those questions.

Chuck looked towards the direction of his game console. Somehow the idea of playing a game right now didn't seem to be offering the usual comfortable distraction that it usually would.

About the only positive distraction the past few days had been Sarah - the beautiful blonde he met at the Buy More.

He was so glad Morgan had pushed him into going on the date. All those nervous feelings had been for nothing.

When he was getting ready for the date, he felt more energetic than he had in a long while - no one since Jill had made him feel like that.

Whatever it was that he had been feeling, Ellie seemed to be proud of him - and that definitely made him feel good about himself.

He began rewinding the heavenly date back to the beginning and watching it over again. "I can't believe I said I could be her very own baggage handler," he said as he slapped his forehead, "what was that about?"

It had been otherwise going so well - at least until the club when the men in black started chasing them.

Chuck's mood dropped a bit. "Why did she have to turn out to be a spy? I guess she was only there because of this Bryce thing. Who was I kidding - I knew it was too good to be true."

"So now what?" he asked the empty room.

He had just stopped a bomb from exploding and had probably saved a bunch of people's lives.

It wasn't like he could go out on a book tour or anything.

"And what about having a bunch of government super secrets in my head? It's not exactly the kind of thing they offer you on career day."

He felt completely alone.

There wasn't anyone he could talk to about this - not that anyone would believe him.

Chuck sulked for a while.

He needed to talk to someone -- like Batman.

Batman was pretty much alone too - he couldn't share his situation with anyone else.

Batman probably stopped bombs all the time.

"Great," Chuck thought, "I'm comparing myself to Batman - I'm totally losing it."

Still, maybe Morgan did have valid points. Maybe being a hero like Batman wasn't all bad - freaky chick part excepted.

If nothing else, Chuck noticed that he hadn't caught himself thinking about any five year plans since.

An early ray of sunshine peeking through his window caused him to look up.

"Well that's nice," he said to himself. A night without any sleep was going to be killer on his shift.

He needed to recharge himself with as much sunlight as he could - along the beach.

As Chuck stood up, he offered himself one bit of hope, "Maybe I'll find some answers there."

* * *

Reference List

A-Team  
Airplane!  
Batman  
Back to the Future III  
Boards of Canada's "Music is Math"  
Bobby's World  
Burn Notice  
Cake's "Short Skirt Long Jacket"  
Contra (original NES)  
Dark City  
Double Dragon III  
Firefly  
Get Smart  
Ghostbusters  
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy  
Homestar Runner  
James Bond  
M.D.K.  
Macintosh "Sad Mac"  
Manos: The Hands of Fate  
Max Headroom  
Mission Impossible  
Mystery Science Theater 3000  
Office Space  
Prince's "Batdance"  
Quantum Leap  
South Park  
Spaceballs  
The Thirteenth Floor  
They Might Be Giants  
Wargames  
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Bonus: pineapple


End file.
